By Minneapolis Senior Advisor Care Team · October 9, 2026
Minnesota runs three separate systems for concerns about a senior's care, and each does a genuinely different job. Here is which one to call when you notice something wrong at a Twin Cities facility, and what happens after you do.
The moment you notice something is wrong
It is usually small at first: a bruise your parent cannot explain, a call that goes unanswered for hours, a room that has not been cleaned in a way that feels off. Families who notice something wrong at a Twin Cities assisted living, memory care, or nursing facility are often unsure who to call, and Minnesota genuinely does run three separate systems for this, each built for a different purpose. Calling the wrong one first does not usually cause harm, since each system can redirect you, but knowing the difference upfront gets help moving faster.
This is not a criticism of the system's complexity so much as an honest reflection of what it is actually built to do: three different Minnesota agencies, with three different legal authorities and three different jobs, cover ground a single hotline could not realistically handle well on its own.
Three systems, three different jobs
MAARC, the Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center, is the statewide intake line for suspected abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation of a specific vulnerable adult. The Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care is an independent advocate who works on behalf of a specific resident to resolve a complaint, but does not license, inspect, or fine a facility. The MDH Office of Health Facility Complaints investigates a facility's regulatory compliance and can take licensing enforcement action, but is not focused on advocating for one individual resident's preferences. All three can be used together, and using one does not preclude using another.
MAARC: call this for suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation
Minnesota centralized adult protection reporting in 2015 into one statewide line rather than routing calls county by county. MAARC, at 1-844-880-1574, operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is the number to call for suspected physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, financial exploitation, or neglect of a vulnerable adult anywhere in Minnesota, including anywhere in the Twin Cities metro. MAARC does not investigate the report itself; it triages the report to the appropriate county or Tribal social services agency, or to MDH or another licensing board, for investigation. Families do not need to know in advance which agency should ultimately handle a report; MAARC figures that out.
You do not need to be a family member to make a report. A friend, a neighbor, a home care aide, or any concerned party who suspects maltreatment of a vulnerable adult can call MAARC directly, and certain professionals, including many who work in licensed care settings, are legally mandated reporters under Minnesota law.
The Ombudsman: call this to advocate for a specific resident
The Minnesota Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care (OOLTC), part of the Minnesota Board on Aging, investigates and helps resolve complaints on behalf of residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, memory care communities, and board-and-lodging settings. Unlike states that split ombudsman coverage across multiple regional offices, Minnesota runs OOLTC as a single statewide office at 1-800-657-3591 or 651-431-2555, covering the entire Twin Cities metro and the rest of the state through the same phone number, staffed 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. One detail surprises many adult children: an ombudsman generally needs the resident's own consent, or their legal representative's consent if the resident lacks capacity, before acting on a complaint on their behalf. If a parent has capacity and does not want a complaint pursued, that decision stands even when family disagrees.
MDH Office of Health Facility Complaints: call this about the facility's compliance
If your concern is about a licensed facility's regulatory compliance generally, rather than a specific incident of suspected maltreatment of one person, the MDH Office of Health Facility Complaints is the right line, at 651-201-4200 in the Twin Cities metro or 1-800-369-7994 in greater Minnesota, during normal business hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. This is a different system than MAARC's 24/7 abuse line, and it is the office that can pull a facility's survey and inspection history, the same information available on the MDH Health Care Provider Directory and the Minnesota Assisted Living Report Card.
A complaint filed here can prompt an unannounced MDH survey of the facility, and the results become part of the same public inspection record you can review before ever touring or signing an agreement with a community, which is part of why raising a compliance concern matters even beyond your own family's immediate situation.
A simple decision framework
If someone is in immediate physical danger, call 911 first, before any of the numbers above. If you suspect abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation of a specific person, call MAARC at 1-844-880-1574, any time, day or night. If you want an independent advocate to help resolve a complaint on a resident's behalf, with that resident's consent, call the Ombudsman at 1-800-657-3591. If your concern is about a facility's general regulatory compliance, staffing patterns, or licensing status rather than one specific incident, call MDH's Office of Health Facility Complaints at 651-201-4200. When in doubt, MAARC is a reasonable default starting point, since it operates around the clock and will redirect your report if another agency is the better fit. It also helps to write down what you observed as soon as possible after noticing it, including dates, times, and who was present, since a specific, contemporaneous account is more useful to any of these three agencies than a general impression recalled days or weeks later.
What happens after you call MAARC
After a report reaches MAARC, it is triaged and routed to the county or Tribal human services agency responsible for investigating maltreatment in that jurisdiction, or to MDH if the concern is specifically about a licensed facility's practices. Investigators generally follow up directly with the reporter when possible, though confidentiality protections mean a reporter will not always receive a detailed account of the outcome. Reporting does not require certainty; if you are unsure whether what you observed rises to the level of abuse or neglect, MAARC's trained intake staff can help you think through whether a report is warranted, and reporting in good faith carries legal protections for the person making the report.
Using more than one system when a situation is serious
A serious concern at a Twin Cities facility often warrants more than one call. A family might report suspected neglect to MAARC, separately ask the Ombudsman to advocate for a care plan change with the resident's consent, and separately raise a pattern of licensing concerns with MDH's Office of Health Facility Complaints if the same issue appears to reflect a broader facility problem rather than an isolated incident. These three systems were built to work in parallel rather than to compete with one another, and Twin Cities families should not feel they have to pick just one.
Keeping a simple written timeline as this unfolds, noting each call made, who you spoke with, and what was said, makes it far easier to follow up with any of the three agencies later and to demonstrate a documented pattern if the same concern recurs.