Something is wrong at Mom’s care home. Who do you call in Minnesota?

Start here: which number, for which problem

The reason this is confusing is not that Minnesota lacks somewhere to complain. It is that there are four bodies with genuinely different jobs, and calling the wrong one costs days you may not have. Use this table first, then read the section for whichever row matches.

MAARC — when you suspect abuse, neglect or exploitation

The Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center is the state’s single front door for reports of suspected maltreatment of a vulnerable adult. It is on 1-844-880-1574, it operates 24 hours a day, and it was created by the Legislature in 2015 precisely so that families and professionals would stop having to guess which agency to ring. MAARC refers reports on to adult protective services, the MDH Office of Health Facility Complaints, DHS licensing, or law enforcement, depending on the setting and the allegation. Source: Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center (MAARC), 1-844-880-1574 — MN Attorney General.

What counts, in plain terms

• Physical harm, rough handling, or injuries nobody can explain.
• Neglect — needs going unmet, whether through indifference, understaffing or incompetence.
• Financial exploitation, including missing money, sudden changes to accounts, or pressure over documents.
• Emotional abuse, threats, isolation or degrading treatment.

You do not have to be sure. The threshold in the Vulnerable Adults Act is belief, not proof: Minn. Stat. § 626.557 subd. 3 requires a mandated reporter who has reason to believe that a vulnerable adult is being or has been maltreated to immediately report. The section remains current law and was amended as recently as 2026. Source: Minn. Stat. § 626.557 — reporting of maltreatment of vulnerable adults.

Who counts as a mandated reporter is defined in a separate statute, and we are not going to list categories we have not verified — if you are wondering whether you personally are one, the practical answer is that anyone may report, and if you are professionally involved you should assume you must. Report first, work out the label afterwards.

The Ombudsman for Long-Term Care — when it is about rights, quality or a notice to leave

The Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care is on 1-800-657-3591 or 651-431-2555, weekdays. It is free, independent of the facility, and it covers adult foster care, assisted living and nursing homes. Interpreter services are available. Its job is advocacy for the resident — not enforcement, and not adjudication. Source: MN Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care.

This is the number for the problems that are real but do not fit an enforcement box. Care that has quietly degraded. A resident being told they must move. Meetings where the family is outnumbered. Rights on paper that are not being honoured in practice.

The Ombudsman is also written into the assisted living statute itself. A resident is entitled to invite an Ombudsman representative to the pre-termination meeting; a copy of any termination notice must be sent to the office; and the notice must carry the office’s contact details. If a termination or non-renewal notice has arrived, read our guide to Minnesota termination notices and appeals before you do anything else — the deadlines are short and services must continue while an appeal is pending. Source: Minn. Stat. § 144G.52 — termination of an assisted living contract.

Residents in licensed assisted living also have a statutory Bill of Rights under Minn. Stat. § 144G.91, which is worth reading before a meeting with a facility rather than after one. Source: Minn. Stat. § 144G.91 — Assisted Living Bill of Rights.

MDH Office of Health Facility Complaints — when a licensed facility is breaking the rules

The Office of Health Facility Complaints sits inside the Minnesota Department of Health and handles complaints about MDH-licensed and certified providers — assisted living facilities, nursing facilities and home care agencies. The contact number is 651-201-4200. Sources: MDH Office of Health Facility Complaints and Minnesota Department of Health — Assisted Living Licensure.

This is the right call when the problem is systemic rather than personal: medications handled wrongly, staffing that does not match what was promised, an unsafe building, records that do not exist, practices that would fail an inspection. What you get from OHFC is an investigation against licensing requirements, and findings that become public.

That public record cuts both ways, and it is worth using before you ever have a complaint. MDH publishes complaint and survey findings, and inspects assisted living facilities at least once every two years. You can look up what inspectors have already found at a specific provider. Sources: MDH — Complaint and Survey Findings and MN Office of the Legislative Auditor, Assisted Living Facility Licensing (2025). Our guide to checking a Minnesota care provider shows which lookup covers which setting.

If the setting is licensed by DHS rather than MDH

Adult foster care homes and community residential settings are licensed by the Department of Human Services, not MDH, so an MDH complaint will not reach them. Suspected maltreatment still goes to MAARC, which routes to DHS licensing. For everything else, the county that placed the resident and the DHS licensing lookup are the starting points. Sources: MN House Research, "Regulation of Health and Human Services Residential Facilities" (Dec 2021) and Minnesota DHS Licensing Information Lookup. See the adult foster care guide for how that licensing structure works.

Three problems people routinely call the wrong number about

A notice to leave is not a licensing complaint

When a termination or non-renewal notice arrives, the instinct is to complain to MDH. That is not where the remedy lives. The remedy is the appeal process in the statute, which is fast and time-limited — a hearing must be held within 14 calendar days of the Office of Administrative Hearings receiving the request, and the termination cannot take effect while the appeal is pending. Call the Ombudsman on 1-800-657-3591 the same day, and read the termination and appeal guide. Source: Minn. Stat. § 144G.52 — termination of an assisted living contract.

A billing dispute is usually a contract question first

Unexpected charges, a care tier that moved without warning, a rent increase nobody mentioned — these are contract matters before they are regulatory ones. Minnesota requires an assisted living contract for every resident regardless of service level, and requires a Uniform Disclosure of Assisted Living Services and Amenities to be given before that contract is signed. Start with those documents; see what a Minnesota assisted living must disclose before you sign. Source: MDH — Assisted Living FAQs: Contracts (Minn. Stat. ch. 144G).

Nursing homes have a further protection that surprises most families. Under Minn. Stat. § 256R.06 subd. 2, a nursing facility is not eligible for Medical Assistance payments unless it refrains from charging private-paying residents more than the state-approved MA rate for similar services, with narrow exceptions for private rooms and separately billed special services. Subdivision 4 allows damages of three times the payments resulting from a violation, plus costs and reasonable attorney fees. Source: Minn. Stat. § 256R.06 subd. 2.

"Is this place even licensed?" has a free, instant answer

You do not need to ring anybody to find this out. MDH publishes a provider directory and a verify-a-licence tool for assisted living, nursing facilities and home care agencies; DHS runs a separate lookup for adult foster care and other DHS-licensed settings. Check the licence before you escalate — occasionally the answer to "who do I call" turns out to be that the setting is not licensed at all, which is itself the report. Sources: MDH — Verify a Facility License and Minnesota DHS Licensing Information Lookup.

What to document before you call

Every one of these agencies will ask you the same questions, and the quality of what happens next depends almost entirely on the specificity of your answers. "The care is bad" produces a different outcome from "on 3 August at about 7pm, one aide was covering the floor and my mother sat in a soiled brief for at least ninety minutes; I said so to the nurse on duty, whose name was on the board as J. Peterson."

Then keep the log going. Dated entries made close to the event carry far more weight later than a reconstruction assembled after the fact, and if the matter ends up in a termination appeal or an investigation interview, your notebook is often the best evidence in the room.

What happens after you call — and what to do while you wait

Expect different clocks. A maltreatment report is triaged and routed, and the agency that ends up with it decides what to investigate. A licensing complaint becomes an investigation against regulatory standards, with findings published in due course. An Ombudsman referral usually produces the fastest human contact, because advocacy does not have to wait for an investigative process.

None of those clocks is fast enough for a family in the middle of it. Three things are worth doing in parallel.

• Keep visiting, and vary the times. Problems that are invisible at 2pm on a Tuesday are often obvious at 7am on a Sunday.
• Put your concerns to the facility in writing, keep the reply, and note what changed. A documented pattern of raising and non-response matters far more than a single complaint.
• Start looking at alternatives before you are forced to, so that a move stays a choice rather than an emergency.

For free help thinking it through rather than escalating it, Minnesota Aging Pathways — the service formerly called the Senior LinkAge Line — is on 1-800-333-2433 and sells nothing, and Disability Hub MN is on 1-866-333-2466 for people under 65. If anyone is in mental health crisis, 988 reaches the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by call or text. Sources: Minnesota Aging Pathways (formerly the Senior LinkAge Line), 1-800-333-2433 — Minnesota Board on Aging, Disability Hub MN, 1-866-333-2466 and 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (SAMHSA).

If the conclusion is that this provider is not going to change, the practical next step is comparison. Browse assisted living, nursing homes, adult foster care or home care, or narrow to where the family is — Minneapolis, Hennepin County, or the rest of Minnesota. Every listing shows the licence number we hold, and says so plainly where we do not hold one.