US · guidance
CMS SOM App. PP, Tag F586
§483.10(k) Contact with External Entities
A facility must not prohibit or in any way discourage a resident from communicating with
federal, state, or local officials, including, but not limited to, federal and state surveyors,
other federal or state health department employees, including representatives of the Office
of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman and any representative of the agency
responsible for the protection and advocacy system for individuals with mental disorder
(established under the Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act of 2000 (42
U.S.C. 10801 et seq.), regarding any matter, whether or not subject to arbitration or any
other type of judicial or regulatory action.
INTENT §483.10(k)
Facility staff must ensure that residents are able to communicate freely with representatives of
these entities for whatever matter.
If concerns are identified regarding being provided contact information for representatives of
these entities, see guidance at 42 CFR §483.10(j)(4)(i), F585, Grievances.
History
Rev. 173, Issued: 11-22-17, Effective: 11-28-17, Implementation: 11-28-17
Provenance
- Source
- cms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-07-22
- Edition
- som-2026-07-22
- Content hash
ddaa8130be824b0f0ecc4e2b98648fc06f972fb5bbac56bb0bda3f8e8c62a5b6
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.