Your rights in home health
Your rights as a home health patient.
Medicare guarantees every home health patient these rights, and every agency has to give them to you in writing before care starts.1 Your admission packet lists your rights and responsibilities in full. Here they are in plain words.
Your rights
What Medicare guarantees you.
- RespectTo have your home, your belongings and yourself treated with respect.1
- SafetyTo be free from abuse, neglect and having your property taken. Staff who see abuse or neglect have to report it right away.1
- A say in your careTo take part in planning your care, to be told about the assessment, the plan, the services, how often visits come, the goals and the risks and benefits, and to agree to or refuse any of it.1
- The care in your planTo receive all the services in your plan of care.1
- PrivacyTo have your clinical record kept confidential.1
- Clear costsTo be told, out loud and in writing, what Medicare or another program pays and what you’ll owe, before care starts, and about any change as soon as possible.1
- Notice before changesTo get written notice in advance if a service may not be covered, and before your care is cut back or ended.1
- Help with language and disabilityTo get interpreters, translated documents and disability aids at no cost.1
- Speaking up safelyTo complain about your care or how you’re treated, and to be free from discrimination or retaliation for doing it. The agency has to investigate and write down the complaint and how it was resolved.1
- InformationTo be given the state’s toll-free home health hotline and the local organizations that can help.1
If a court has found that you can’t make your own decisions, a court-appointed representative exercises your rights. Otherwise, you can choose a representative, who gets the written notice too.1
When care can end
An agency can discharge or transfer you only for certain reasons: the goals are met, Medicare or another payer will no longer pay, you refuse care or choose to leave, your needs are more than the agency can meet and it arranges a safe transfer, behavior in the home is seriously disruptive and the agency has first tried to resolve it, or the agency closes.1
If something isn’t right
Who to call, in order.
- Your nurse, your therapist or the agency’s clinical manager, whose name and contact information you get in writing.2
- HealthView, any hour. Ask for the administrator. (562) 600-1000
- The California Department of Public Health, which licenses agencies and hospices and investigates complaints. Call the district office for your county, or file a complaint online.3
- Los Angeles County (800) 228-1019
- Orange County (800) 228-5234
- Riverside County (888) 354-9203
- San Bernardino County (800) 344-2896
- Livanta, Medicare’s quality reviewer for California, for a complaint about the quality of care Medicare paid for, or a fast appeal.4 (877) 588-1123
- 1-800-MEDICARE, for questions about coverage, notices and appeals.5 1-800-633-4227
Your records
You have the right to see your health records and get a copy.
Sources
Sources 5 references
- 42 CFR 484.50, “Condition of participation: Patient rights.” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. law.cornell.edu (opens in a new tab)
- 42 CFR 484.60, “Condition of participation: Care planning, coordination of services, and quality of care.” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. law.cornell.edu (opens in a new tab)
- California Department of Public Health, Licensing and Certification, “Contact Us,” district office numbers. cdph.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, contact directory, “Livanta, LLC,” the Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization for California. cms.gov (opens in a new tab)
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “Medicare & Home Health Care,” Product No. 10969, July 2025. es.medicare.gov (opens in a new tab)