Acentra Health Discharge Appeal in Tennessee: Timelines, Phone Numbers, and How to File

The hospital says your parent is being discharged tomorrow morning, but they can barely walk to the bathroom unassisted. You disagree with the decision — and Medicare gives you the legal right to challenge it. In Tennessee, that challenge goes through Acentra Health, and the timeline is measured in hours, not weeks.

Who Is Acentra Health?

Acentra Health is the federally contracted Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization (BFCC-QIO) for Tennessee. They're independent of the hospital, but they're federally contracted by Medicare/CMS to conduct neutral reviews of discharge disputes between patients and hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies.

Contact information:

• Phone: 1-888-317-0751 (toll-free, available 24/7 for urgent cases)
• Fax: 1-844-878-7921
• TTY: 1-855-843-4776

The Hospital Discharge Appeal Process

Step 1: Receive the Important Message from Medicare

Before any Medicare-covered hospital can discharge your parent, they must provide a document called "An Important Message from Medicare" (IM, Form CMS-10065). This form explains your parent's rights as a hospital patient, including the right to appeal the discharge decision. Your parent (or their representative) must sign this form — signing acknowledges receipt, not agreement with the discharge.

If the hospital hasn't given your parent this form, ask for it immediately. The hospital is legally required to provide it within two days of admission and again before discharge.

Step 2: File the Appeal Before Your Parent Leaves

This is the critical deadline. To freeze the discharge and keep your parent in the hospital during the review, you must call Acentra Health before your parent physically leaves the hospital on the scheduled discharge day. Not after. Not the next morning. Before they leave.

Call 1-888-317-0751 and tell the representative you want to file a fast appeal of a hospital discharge. They'll need your parent's name, Medicare number, the hospital name, and the reason you believe the discharge is unsafe.

Step 3: The Hospital Must Respond

Once you file, the hospital is required to provide a Detailed Notice of Discharge (DND, Form CMS-10066). This document lays out the hospital's specific clinical justifications for ending acute care — why they believe your parent is medically stable enough to leave.

Step 4: Acentra Reviews and Decides

Acentra Health reviews your parent's medical records, the hospital's justification, and any additional information you provide. The review typically takes one calendar day after they receive the medical records.

During this review period:

• Your parent stays in the hospital
• The hospital cannot charge your parent for the additional days
• Medicare continues to cover the stay until Acentra issues its decision

If Acentra sides with you, your parent stays and Medicare continues to pay. If Acentra sides with the hospital, coverage ends at noon the day after the decision. At that point, you can still escalate through Medicare's standard five-level appeals process, but your parent would need to leave or begin paying privately while that appeal moves forward.

SNF and Home Health Termination Appeals

Hospital discharges aren't the only decisions you can appeal. If your parent is in a skilled nursing facility and receives a Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage (NOMNC) saying their rehab coverage is ending, you can appeal that termination through the same Acentra Health process.

The key difference: for SNF and home health termination appeals, you must contact Acentra no later than noon the day before coverage is scheduled to end. Miss that deadline and your parent becomes responsible for costs starting the next day.

Medicare Advantage Plan Appeals

If your parent has a Medicare Advantage plan instead of Original Medicare, the appeal process is different. MA plan discharge disputes go through the plan's own expedited appeals process, so contact the plan directly and follow the plan's instructions.

Check your parent's MA plan documents or appeal notice for the specific appeal phone number, review route, and deadline. Do not assume the Original Medicare Acentra process or deadline applies.

What Makes a Strong Appeal

The most effective appeals aren't emotional — they're clinical. When you call Acentra, be ready to explain:

• Specific safety concerns: "My mother fell twice in the hospital bathroom this week and cannot safely transfer from bed to toilet without assistance"
• Unresolved medical issues: "His blood pressure is still fluctuating and they haven't stabilized his medication"
• Inadequate home setup: "There's no one at home during the day, and the doctor hasn't arranged home health services yet"
• Incomplete discharge planning: "The hospital hasn't coordinated DME delivery or arranged follow-up appointments"

The Tennessee hospital discharge transition toolkit includes pre-written appeal scripts for each of these scenarios, plus the exact clinical language that Acentra reviewers look for when evaluating whether a discharge is premature.

Immediate Advocacy: The Backup Option

If you missed the appeal deadline — your parent was already discharged before you could call — Acentra offers Immediate Advocacy Discharge Assistance (IADA). This is an informal mediation process where an Acentra representative contacts the hospital to try to resolve the issue. It doesn't have the same legal protections as a formal appeal (the hospital isn't required to pause anything), but it can still result in readmission or additional post-discharge services.

Call the same number: 1-888-317-0751.

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