If you have been told you need a Rule 25 assessment, the short answer is that Rule 25 assessments no longer exist. Minnesota ended the old process on July 1, 2022, and replaced it with Direct Access, which lets a person go straight to a licensed provider of their choosing for a comprehensive assessment rather than waiting on a county appointment first [1].
The name stuck, though, which is why people still search for it. What follows is what Rule 25 was, what Direct Access replaced it with, what a comprehensive assessment actually involves, and how to get one now. The comprehensive assessment covers substance use disorders involving alcohol or other drugs, and it points toward a specific level of addiction treatment rather than a general recommendation to get help. Behavioral addictions, such as gambling disorder, may follow different assessment, treatment, and funding pathways.
What Was a Rule 25 Assessment?
Rule 25 was the section of Minnesota rules that governed how a chemical use assessment was carried out and how placement decisions were made. To receive public funding for chemical dependency treatment, a person needed a chemical use assessment completed by a Rule 25 assessor, and that assessment was the front of the treatment process. In an assessment of this kind, the assessor gathers information about a person’s substance use, medical history, and circumstances, then determines whether appropriate treatment services are needed and which alcohol or drug treatment setting fits.
The bottleneck was structural. A person ready for help had to route through a governmental agency acting as the placing authority before they could start anywhere, and that step took time that people in crisis often did not have.
You may still hear several older or informal names used for substance use assessments. For Minnesota Direct Access, the current statutory term is “comprehensive assessment.” If an assessment is being required by a court, probation officer, employer, or the Department of Public Safety, confirm exactly which statutory or administrative requirements it must meet.
- Chemical health assessment, a term many counties and providers still use
- Chemical dependency evaluation or chemical health evaluation
- Chemical use assessment, the phrase the old rule itself used
- Comprehensive assessment, which is the current and correct term
- Alcohol drug treatment assessment, a loose phrasing that still turns up in searches
What Is Direct Access?
Direct Access allows an individual to go directly to a provider they choose, receive a comprehensive assessment, and access care immediately. It removes the timing barrier of going through a placing authority, allows for individual choice, and removes duplicate assessments [2]. A referral from a county or tribe is not required to pick a provider.
What Direct Access Changed
The practical change is that the front door moved. Instead of requesting an assessment from a county and waiting to be referred, a person can simply contact a licensed treatment program directly and be assessed there. Because the assessment and the treatment happen in the same place, the recommendation does not have to be handed off to another organization before anything starts.
Minnesota also removed the old limit of two billable comprehensive assessments within a six-month period when the parallel process ended [1]. That matters for anyone who was assessed once, did not enter treatment at the time, and later decided to try again.
What Direct Access Did Not Change
This is the part that trips people up, including some providers. Direct Access did not eliminate the Behavioral Health Fund, but responsibility for determining eligibility changed again in 2026. Effective July 1, 2026, Minnesota DHS generally determines BHF eligibility statewide. Tribal Nations may choose to determine eligibility under specific contracts with DHS. Counties, Tribal Nations, and SUD providers can still help people complete and submit the application [2]. Direct Access removed the county assessment step. It did not remove the funding application.
In plain terms: you no longer need the county’s permission to be assessed or to choose where you go. If you are seeking BHF payment, the funding application is separate from the clinical assessment. DHS generally determines BHF eligibility, while counties, Tribal Nations, and providers may assist with the application.
What the Comprehensive Assessment Covers
A comprehensive assessment is a structured clinical interview that produces a decision, not just a file. Under Minnesota law it has to result in either a diagnosis of a substance use disorder or a finding that the person does not meet the criteria. It also includes screening for co-occurring mental health disorders using tools approved by the commissioner, risk ratings, and a recommendation for a specific ASAM level of care [3].
That last piece is what makes the assessment useful rather than procedural. The recommendation is not “get treatment”; it is a level, which is why our explainer on the ASAM 3.7 level of care is worth reading if withdrawal is part of your picture. The mental health screening matters too, since untreated symptoms are a common reason treatment does not hold. The signs of co-occurring disorder are worth knowing beforehand.
Who Can Complete a Comprehensive Assessment
Not everyone who works in treatment is a qualified assessor. Minnesota statute limits the comprehensive assessment to a short list of providers: an alcohol and drug counselor; a mental health professional who meets the state’s qualifications and has at least 12 hours of substance use disorder training; a clinical trainee working under that professional’s supervision; or an advanced practice registered nurse working within the APRN’s scope of practice and with the required substance use disorder training [3].
A licensed professional in private practice can be enrolled to provide the assessment as well, so a person is not limited to a large program or a county office. What matters is that the medical professional or counselor holds one of those credentials, not where in the health care system their desk sits.
The Six Dimensions the Assessment Rates
The assessment rates risk across six dimensions drawn from the ASAM criteria [4]:
- Acute intoxication and withdrawal potential
- Biomedical conditions and complications
- Emotional, behavioral or cognitive conditions
- Readiness to change
- Relapse, continued use or continued problem potential
- Recovery and living environment, including the social support around a person
Those six are why two people with similar drinking histories can receive different recommendations, since each unique situation is rated separately. Someone with unmanaged withdrawal risk may need medical withdrawal support before anything else, while someone stable in the first dimension but living somewhere unsafe may be steered toward a residential setting for reasons unrelated to how much they use. The sixth dimension is the one people underestimate most often, because going home to the same house and the same routine is what undoes a lot of otherwise solid plans. The benefits of living in sober homes come up here for exactly that reason.
How to Get an Assessment in Minnesota Today
Contact a licensed substance use disorder treatment program or an enrolled licensed professional and ask for a comprehensive assessment. That is the whole process. A person can request an assessment for themselves, and family members or other supporters can contact a provider to ask about arranging one. A competent adult generally must participate and consent unless a court order or other legal authority applies.
Our guidance on being a support system for a struggling loved one covers how to raise it without a confrontation. You can call a provider in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Ramsey County, St. Paul, or anywhere in the surrounding metro without a county referral first. The Minnesota Department of Human Services publishes a licensing lookup that works as a resource list of licensed programs [2].
Cost is the question people hesitate on. Assessments are commonly billed to Medical Assistance or private health insurance, and for people who qualify, the Behavioral Health Fund can cover treatment at no cost to the client. If you are uninsured, free options may be available that way.
BHF eligibility depends on income and other program requirements, including existing insurance and Medical Assistance coverage. As of July 1, 2026, DHS generally makes the eligibility determination, while counties, Tribal Nations, and SUD providers can help people apply. If you are unsure whether an assessment is warranted at all, the signs of addiction are a reasonable place to start.
Court-Ordered and Probation-Related Assessments
Not everyone arrives voluntarily. Courts and probation officers commonly order an assessment, and completing one can be a condition of probation or part of what is required before driving privileges are restored after an alcohol-related offense.
Court-ordered assessments can have requirements beyond an ordinary Direct Access comprehensive assessment. In DWI-related cases, Minn. Stat. §169A.70 establishes specific assessor, report, record-review, deadline, and reporting requirements.
What differs is who receives the result and what they expect of you afterward. Those requirements come from the court, your probation officer, or the Department of Public Safety rather than from the treatment provider, so it is worth confirming in writing exactly what has been ordered before you schedule.
Do not assume that an ordinary Direct Access comprehensive assessment will satisfy a court, probation, or driver’s-license requirement. Confirm the exact statutory and agency requirements before scheduling. The clinical recommendation should remain based on the assessment, but a court-ordered assessment may have additional statutory requirements concerning the assessor, records reviewed, report contents, deadlines, and recipients.
Common Questions About Rule 25 Assessments
How Long Does an Assessment Take?
Providers commonly schedule one to two hours for the interview, though the time varies with how complex a history is. The assessor works through your substance use history, medical and mental health background, living situation, and what you want out of treatment, then rates the six dimensions.
Separately, there is a legal deadline on the provider’s side. Minnesota statute requires the comprehensive assessment to be completed face-to-face within five calendar days from the day services start in a residential program, or by the end of the fifth day on which a treatment service is provided in a nonresidential program. So the assessment does not have to be finished before care begins.
How Long Is an Assessment Good For?
Minnesota’s comprehensive assessment statute does not set a blanket expiration date, which is why you will see conflicting answers online. In practice, whether an assessment still stands depends on whether your situation has changed since it was done.
If months have passed, your use has escalated, or your housing, health or mental health has shifted, expect to be reassessed, because the dimension ratings that drive the recommendation would now be different. The former two-assessments-in-six-months billing limit was removed, although payment for a repeat assessment can still depend on the payer and applicable coverage rules.
Can You Complete an Assessment Online or by Phone?
Yes. Minnesota defines “face-to-face” for Chapter 245G as two-way, real-time, interactive visual communication and specifically includes both in-person and telehealth services. That means a comprehensive assessment may be completed through qualifying live video telehealth. A phone-only call does not satisfy that face-to-face definition. Provider availability, technology, insurance, or other requirements may still affect whether a particular provider offers telehealth assessments.
What Should You Say During an Assessment?
Searches for how to pass a substance abuse assessment, or what not to say, are common enough that they deserve a direct answer: it is not a test, and there is nothing to pass. The assessment produces a level-of-care recommendation, so understating your use does not get you a better outcome; it gets you a recommendation aimed at a problem you do not have.
Being candid is the practical move rather than the noble one. If withdrawal has been dangerous, saying so is what triggers clinically managed and medically monitored withdrawal management instead of an outpatient schedule you cannot safely keep. If you disagree with the recommendation you receive, you can ask for a second opinion from another qualified assessor.
What Changed on August 1, 2026
Minnesota’s substance use disorder service structure was revised effective August 1, 2026, a date moved back from July 1. The changes matter for what a recommendation now leads to.
Effective August 1, 2026, Minnesota revised several SUD treatment service definitions and terminology to better align with the ASAM Criteria, 4th Edition. However, Minnesota’s statutory levels of care and six assessment dimensions remain aligned with ASAM Criteria, 3rd Edition as of September 2026. DHS says providers may also integrate 4th Edition practices while continuing to meet current statutory requirements.
Service types were realigned to the ASAM 4th Edition, with the statutory language shifting from skilled treatment services to psychosocial services. Programs are required to offer counseling, psychoeducation, and treatment coordination as needed, and peer recovery support services became a distinct service type delivered by a recovery peer with lived experience [5]. Treatment coordination, the work of linking a person to the right services and keeping them connected, is now delivered to a single client by a qualified treatment coordinator, who functions as a personal advocate inside a system that is not simple to navigate alone.
For someone assessed today, the recommendation sits inside a clearer menu of services than in 2022, and support that follows a person over time is a defined part of it rather than an add-on. Peer support through a provider is distinct from the Twin Cities support groups people attend on their own, and many people use both.
Getting Started with an Assessment
The step that used to require a county appointment now takes a phone call to a provider. That is the substance of what changed, and it matters if the last time you looked into treatment was before 2022.
NorthStar Regional completes comprehensive assessments for adults and provides substance use disorder and mental health treatment across the Twin Cities metro. If you would like to arrange an assessment or ask what your coverage looks like, our team can be reached through our contact page.
Sources
- Minnesota Department of Human Services. As Rule 25 phases out on July 1, 2022, new Direct Access resources become available on DHS website. eMemo bulletin, June 15, 2022. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MNDHS/bulletins/31c5924
- Minnesota Department of Human Services. Direct Access, Substance Use Disorder Reform. Last modified July 31, 2026. https://mn.gov/dhs/partners-and-providers/news-initiatives-reports-workgroups/alcohol-drug-other-addictions/sudreform/
- Minnesota Statutes 245G.05, Comprehensive Assessment and Assessment Summary. Amended 2025. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/245G.05
- Minnesota Department of Human Services. MN 245G Comprehensive Assessment Reference Guide. https://mn.gov/dhs/assets/2023%20comp%20assess%20guide%20final%2010262023_tcm1053-596805.pdf
- Minnesota Department of Human Services. Information on 2026 Changes. Updated July 13, 2026. https://mn.gov/dhs/assets/Information%20on%202026%20Changes%20Updated%20July%2013%2C%202026_tcm1053-754379.pdf
