Authority and scope
Check the facility type and concern
BSC receives complaints about hospitals, including psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, surgery centers, home health, hospice, specified outpatient providers and psychiatric residential treatment facilities. BCHS handles adult foster care, homes for the aged and substance-use-disorder programs through separate routes.
Supporting guidance: BSC complaint instructions ↗BCHS complaint routes ↗Residential-care complaint form, December 2024 ↗
Match the route to the facility type
BSC health facilities
Hospitals, nursing homes, surgery centers, home health, hospice and specified certified providers; state matters may be referred.
Open this official route ↗BCHS adult foster care
Adult foster care and camps; linked paper form also expressly covers homes for the aged.
Open this official route ↗BCHS substance-use programs and homes for the aged
Officially linked separate online intake; detailed filing requirements were not established.
Open this official route ↗Checked steps and filing details to confirm
- For a BSC health-facility complaint, use the online route on its instructions page or call 800-882-6006.
- For adult foster care, call 866-856-0126 or use the linked complaint form; the instructions also allow mail and fax. The December 2024 paper form expressly includes homes for the aged and adult foster care camps.
- Describe the provider, location, dates, people involved, repeated or ongoing problems, witnesses and how you know what happened. Explain the basis for alleging unlicensed operation. The paper form contains an accuracy certification and signature/date fields despite allowing anonymous complaints; ask intake how to complete those fields anonymously.
- BCHS separately links an online substance-use-disorder/home-for-the-aged intake. Its detailed fields and consent terms were not established.
Supporting guidance: BSC complaint instructions ↗BCHS complaint routes ↗Adult foster care complaints ↗Residential-care complaint form, December 2024 ↗
What this route may not provide
BSC investigates federal certification requirements and refers state licensing matters to BCHS. Its exclusions include ordinary urgent-care and primary-care offices, billing or insurance disputes, individual professional licenses and assisted living/adult foster care. A facility affiliation alone does not establish jurisdiction.
Supporting guidance: BSC complaint instructions ↗
Do not guess about confidentiality
BSC accepts anonymous complaints, without outcome notices; identifying information is confidential. Adult foster care instructions and the paper form allow omission of name/contact details and protect the complainant's name unless a court orders disclosure. Missing contact information can prevent follow-up or confirmation.
Supporting guidance: BSC complaint instructions ↗Adult foster care complaints ↗Residential-care complaint form, December 2024 ↗
Federal investigation generally has a 12-month incident lookback; state routes may differ.
BSC generally cannot investigate incidents more than 12 months before filing under federal authority; state review may still be possible. Its 7–10-business-day acknowledgment target is not a filing deadline. A filing deadline for the separate BCHS routes was not established by this check; ask promptly.
Supporting guidance: BSC complaint instructions ↗
What may happen after filing
BSC prioritizes complaints, may conduct an unannounced survey and reports findings when contact information is supplied. Violations can require correction. Adult foster care allegations are assessed for possible licensing action.
Supporting guidance: BSC complaint instructions ↗Residential-care complaint form, December 2024 ↗
Prepare a reviewable submission
State the concern you want reviewed, give a short chronology and factual consequences, and explain your request. Keep supporting records and follow the receiving authority’s instructions before attaching or sending them.
Other facility processes to consider
These processes have different purposes. The national guidance below does not establish this state’s filing requirements or change the verification level shown above.
Hospital grievance
For hospitals covered by CMS hospital Conditions of Participation, ask for the grievance contact and written procedure. The hospital must specify response timeframes and give a written decision describing its contact, investigation, results and completion date. These are hospital rules, not a single rule for every facility. You may contact the responsible State Survey Agency without first completing the hospital process.
Supporting guidance: CMS: hospital grievance guidance ↗
State oversight
Match external oversight to the facility type and license. State Survey Agencies help CMS assess federal compliance; state licensing may cover different settings. Confirm jurisdiction rather than assuming one contact handles every clinic or residential program.
Supporting guidance: CMS: State Survey Agency contacts ↗
Medicare quality review and appeals
People with Medicare can ask their Medicare quality-review organization (BFCC-QIO) about eligible quality-of-care concerns. A complaint is different from a fast appeal when discharge or covered services may be ending too soon. Follow the Important Message from Medicare or Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage immediately; the notice identifies the contact and deadline. An inpatient-to-observation status change may also have a separate fast-appeal route; ask for its notice and current instructions. A routine grievance does not substitute for an appeal.
Supporting guidance: Medicare: fast appeals and BFCC-QIO help ↗
Long-term-care advocacy
Long-Term Care Ombudsmen advocate for residents of nursing homes, assisted living and similar residential settings. They help resolve concerns according to the resident’s wishes; they are not licensing enforcement. Identity disclosure generally requires informed consent, with court-order and specified incapacity exceptions. Ask how resident, representative and complainant consent applies.
Supporting guidance: ACL: Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program ↗45 CFR 1324: Long-Term Care Ombudsman rules ↗
National sources and scope
CMS: hospital grievance guidance ↗
Hospital participation scope and tags A-0118, A-0121–A-0123: written/verbal grievances, response policy, written decision and direct state-agency access. Relevant passages only; not a rule for every facility.
Source checked: September 30, 2026
CMS: State Survey Agency contacts ↗
Federal participation oversight and quality complaint directory; confirm facility-type jurisdiction and state licensing separately.
Source checked: September 30, 2026
Medicare: fast appeals and BFCC-QIO help ↗
Eligible care-ending/discharge and inpatient-to-observation status-change appeals, notice-specific timing and costs; separate quality-of-care help for Medicare-covered services. Current page text read.
Source checked: September 30, 2026
ACL: Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program ↗
Resident advocacy in nursing homes, assisted living, board-and-care and similar residential care; state-program locator.
Source checked: September 19, 2026
45 CFR 1324: Long-Term Care Ombudsman rules ↗
Sections 1324.11(e)(3) and 1324.19: resident direction, consent, complainant/resident identity protection, court orders and limited incapacity exceptions; distinct from regulatory enforcement. Current through September 17, 2026 when checked.
Source checked: September 19, 2026
Sources and scope
Some agency-linked forms and destinations could not be read. Source-check dates apply to the material listed below; they do not establish that every linked portal was inspected or a complaint submitted.
BSC complaint instructions ↗
Facility scope, state/federal division, exclusions, privacy, timing and investigation.
Source checked: September 19, 2026
BCHS complaint routes ↗
Separate facility complaint intakes and substance-use/home-for-the-aged link.
Source checked: September 19, 2026
Adult foster care complaints ↗
Adult foster care submission channels, anonymous reporting and confidentiality.
Source checked: September 19, 2026
Residential-care complaint form, December 2024 ↗
Express home-for-the-aged scope, narrative fields, anonymity and signature certification.
Source checked: September 19, 2026
Latest guide source check: September 19, 2026. Individual sources retain their own check dates. This records a review of the linked material, not a decision about your case. No clinical or legal reviewer is identified for this guide. Confirm current instructions with the receiving authority.