Lactation consultant licensing in District of Columbia
No lactation-consultant licence in the District of Columbia. Lactation consulting is not among the health occupations the Health Occupations Revision Act regulates — but DC Medicaid enrols board-certified lactation consultants directly.
Licence to practise
No licence identified
No effective date recorded
Medicaid billing · consultant who is not a nurse
Can bill directly
Since 2019-01-01
Providers per 10,000 births
63.8
Rank 2 of 51 · US overall 27.9
Where this comes from
Checked against the state’s own law
Dataset compiled 2026-09-11
What we found
- DC Code §3-1201.02 defines the regulated health occupations, from medicine and nursing to psychology; lactation consulting is not among them (read 2026-09-11).
- The District funds a Lactation Certification Preparatory Program (DC Code §4-651.08), which prepares people for certification; it does not license anyone.
What this means if you are looking for help
No licence means the title "lactation consultant" is not restricted in the District. Anyone may use it. That makes checking the IBCLC credential itself the thing that tells you something — and in DC, a board-certified consultant can bill Medicaid directly.
Can a lactation consultant bill Medicaid here?
Can bill directly · since 2019-01-01
DC Medicaid enrols board-certified lactation consultants as providers who bill lactation consultation themselves, under HCPCS code S9443 at $15.63 per 15-minute unit — up to four units a visit and four visits within 120 days of delivery — effective 1 January 2019 (DHCF Transmittal 19-20, issued 26 September 2019).
Sources
- DC Code §3-1201.02 — regulated health occupations — read 2026-09-11
- DC Code §4-651.08 — Lactation Certification Preparatory Program — read 2026-09-11
Dataset compiled 2026-09-11. Directly researched. This is a plain-language summary of public sources, not legal advice.