Authority and scope
Check the facility type and concern
DHI oversees licensed acute and continuing care, long-term care, assisted living, home care, hospice and community mental-health centers. Its Health Facility Licensing and Certification bureaus distinguish certified long-term care, acute/continuing care, and state-only facilities such as assisted living and boarding homes. Its separate Medicaid waiver oversight should not be confused with universal authority over every residential program.
Supporting guidance: DHI scope and enforcement ↗
Match the route to the facility type
DHI licensed-facility complaints
Licensed acute/continuing care, nursing/long-term care, assisted living/boarding homes, home care/hospice and community mental-health centers. Full separate addiction and behavioral residential-program routing remains unverified.
Open this official route ↗DHI online consumer complaint
Online destination identified by the current official reporting poster; full online fields were not verified.
Open this official route ↗Checked steps and filing details to confirm
- The November 2025 poster directs complaints to 800-752-8649, fax 888-576-0012, or its online consumer complaint form. The printable form asks for facility/patient identifiers, admission/discharge details, events, dates, witnesses and prior reports. Attach supporting information.
- If reporting for someone else, the form asks whether you hold healthcare power of attorney or have authorization to receive care information; supply documentation of authorization when applicable.
Supporting guidance: DHI consumer complaint form ↗DHI November 2025 complaint poster ↗
What this route may not provide
Reports are evaluated under applicable state or federal requirements; not every unsatisfactory experience is a legal violation. Confirm the exact facility license, particularly for addiction treatment, children’s residential programs or other behavioral settings whose full routing was not established here. Individual practitioner discipline is a separate matter.
Supporting guidance: DHI scope and enforcement ↗DHI consumer complaint form ↗
Do not guess about confidentiality
The form allows complete anonymity by omitting complainant information, but then DHI cannot seek clarification or provide results. It does not establish all later disclosure rules for identified complaints.
Supporting guidance: DHI consumer complaint form ↗
Incidents older than twelve months generally do not lead to an on-site investigation.
The form says older information is retained. This is a stated investigation practice, not an absolute rejection of older complaints; report promptly and ask about your circumstances.
Supporting guidance: DHI consumer complaint form ↗
What may happen after filing
DHI reviews complaints and sends an email disposition when contact information is available. Its enforcement tools include surveys, investigations and sanctions for noncompliance. No completion promise was established.
Supporting guidance: DHI scope and enforcement ↗DHI consumer complaint form ↗
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.
DHI scope and enforcement ↗
Facility categories, oversight and form link
Source checked: September 19, 2026
DHI consumer complaint form ↗
Complaint details, representative authorization, anonymity and older incidents
Source checked: September 19, 2026
DHI November 2025 complaint poster ↗
Current hotline, fax and online destination
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.