What to do When You Are Not Happy with Your Home Health Agency?

From time to time patients and their families may have a less than optimal experience while receiving care from a home health agency. There are many reputable home health agencies that when notified of a negative experience will make every effort to remedy the situation. But if an unfortunate set of circumstances occur and the home health agency has less than stellar customer service and response many patients and their families believe they have no other options. However there is a course of action that patients and their families can exercise to resolve issues and seek the quality care and service deserved. Here are the list of steps that can be taken.

1. Contact your home health agency and ask to speak to your patient care manager. Advise the manager of your complaint and solutions you believe will resolve the situation.

2. If you are not satisfied with the response or the agency does not respond, notify the agency in writing of your complaint with proposed solutions you believe will resolve the situation. Direct your communication to the Director of Patient Services or Director of Compliance/Performance Improvement.

3. If you are not satisfied with the response or the agency does not respond, you then can contact your state survey agency who is responsible for allowing the home health agency to operate under the state license. To find your state survey agency phone number and Website visit State Survey List.

4. If you remain concerned about the quality of care that the agency is providing you can contact your state quality improvement organization (QIO). To find your state QIO phone number and Website visit State QIO List.

5. If you remain concerned about the quality of care that the agency is providing and they are accredited by one of the three accreditation organizations (AO) you can contact the AO:

• Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC)
• Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP)
• The Joint Commission

6. If you are a Medicare beneficiary, contact Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or visit their Inquiries and Complaints Webpage.

Remember that quality healthcare and patient choice are rights rather than options. If you are unable to find a home healthcare agency that is willing to provide the care and service required, there are other agencies in your area that you can contact.

To find other home health agencies you can explore the Medicare.gov Home Health Compare website. This Website allows you to search for home health agencies in your area and compare their quality outcome measures. The quality measures describe how well home health agencies provide care. Visit the Home Health Compare Website.