Client Grievances and Complaints

6.1 Your voice matters

AriseVida Care welcomes concerns about the services we provide and the way you are treated. A grievance is an expression of dissatisfaction or a complaint requesting review. You do not need to use legal terms, complete a special form or first discuss the matter with the person involved. Raising a concern will not cost you anything.

This process covers AriseVida Care LLC's admissions and referral practices, outpatient care, medication services, mental-health and substance-use treatment, group services, case management, peer support, transportation we provide or arrange, and interactions with our website at arisevida.com. Supportive housing associated with our care is operated by UnityBridge Recovery LLC, a separate company under common ownership. You may report a housing concern to Mike Fagan so it can be directed to the responsible operator while AriseVida addresses its own involvement. The rights, notices and procedures applicable to a residence depend on its actual operation and legal requirements; clinic rules do not automatically govern every housing matter. If another organization operates a service, we will help identify the appropriate contact.

You may raise concerns about staff behavior, appointments, communication, billing, privacy, accessibility, discrimination, treatment planning, medication access, transportation, housing conditions, discharge or other aspects of your experience. A complaint can involve more than one process. For example, a medication-access concern may require immediate clinical attention, a safety review and a separate insurance appeal.

For an emergency, call 911. For a mental-health, suicide or substance-use crisis, call or text 988. Do not wait for a grievance response when someone needs immediate help.

6.2 Your rights and protection from retaliation

You may ask questions, disagree with recommendations, seek help understanding your rights, submit information, use an authorized representative and contact an outside agency. You may report directly to regulators or your health plan without first completing AriseVida's process. Our review does not stop outside filing deadlines.

We prohibit intimidation, threats, harassment or retaliation for raising a concern, supporting someone else's complaint or participating in a review. No employee may use a complaint as a reason to withhold medication, deny access to records, reduce appropriate care or threaten loss of housing. Tell Mike Fagan at mike@arisevida.com if you believe retaliation has occurred. If the concern involves Mike, contact Arthur Allayev at arthur@arisevida.com; if it involves Arthur, contact Mike. If both are involved, or at any other time, you may report directly to an appropriate outside agency.

Clinical decisions, eligibility decisions and safety measures must have legitimate, documented reasons and follow applicable rights, notice and continuity-of-care requirements. They must not disguise retaliation. Filing a complaint does not require you to waive legal rights, withdraw another complaint or agree to a confidentiality restriction as a condition of receiving a response.

Arizona outpatient patient rights include respectful treatment, protection against mistreatment, participation in treatment decisions, privacy, access to one's records as provided by law, help exercising rights and appropriate referral when a facility cannot provide needed care. This page supplements the rights statement provided at admission. Arizona outpatient patient-rights rule, R9-10-1008.

6.3 How to submit a grievance

Contact Mike Fagan at mike@arisevida.com, call 602-899-1229 during the clinic hours listed above, speak with staff in person, or mail your concern to the clinic address above, attention Mike Fagan. You may also send an initial nonemergency text to 602-851-6964 at any time; do not rely on texting for an immediate response. You may give a verbal report to any staff member and ask that it be documented and delivered to the designated reviewer.

You may bypass a staff member or supervisor who is involved in the concern. For a complaint about Mike Fagan, contact Arthur Allayev at arthur@arisevida.com. For a complaint about Arthur, contact Mike at mike@arisevida.com. If both are involved, you may use an appropriate outside agency directly. These contacts are internal contacts; they are not represented as independent outside reviewers.

Tell us what happened, when and where it occurred, which service was involved, whether anyone is currently at risk, and what response would help. Include relevant names and documents if available. You do not need to know a staff member's full name or have proof before reporting. Please distinguish what you observed from what someone else told you and tell us if you are unsure of a detail.

Provide a safe way to contact you and say whether we may leave voicemail, send mail or communicate with a representative. Do not include Social Security numbers, payment-card details, full medical records or another person's private information in an ordinary website contact form, social-media comment or unsolicited email. Use email or text for an initial concern and arrange an appropriate transfer method with the reviewer before sending clinical records or sensitive supporting documents. The listed email addresses are designated for private correspondence, but email is not represented as an encrypted transfer method. Admission inquiries may be sent to admissions@arisevida.com and general questions to info@arisevida.com; grievance concerns should be directed to the contacts above.

We accept anonymous reports. Withholding your name may limit our ability to verify events, obtain additional information or provide you with a result. We will still review the information available. Describing a report as anonymous does not guarantee that the circumstances or technical records cannot reveal the reporter's identity.

6.4 Assistance and representatives

You may request language assistance, an accessible format, a qualified interpreter or another reasonable modification needed to use this process. Mike Fagan at mike@arisevida.com is the contact for accessibility assistance with a grievance. Assistance will be provided without charge where required by applicable law. We will work with you to identify an effective way to receive and discuss the concern; inability to use an online form is not a reason to refuse a grievance.

A family member, trusted support person, advocate or legally authorized representative may assist you. We may receive information from someone who does not have access to your records, but receiving that information does not authorize us to disclose your treatment or other protected information back to them. We will verify authority and obtain any required consent before sharing information or allowing someone to act on your behalf. You may change your communication preferences or representative, subject to applicable legal authority.

6.5 What happens after we receive your concern

Initial review. We record the date received, the issues raised, your requested response and any immediate risk. We route urgent care needs to an appropriate clinician or emergency service promptly; we do not wait for a completed grievance investigation. Privacy, discrimination, abuse or other allegations may also require a separate review or report.

Acknowledgment. We acknowledge a grievance within five business days when contact information is available. We identify the reviewing role and explain the next steps. A shorter legally required acknowledgment period controls. Business days for this purpose are Monday through Friday, excluding recognized holidays; this definition does not change any external deadline.

Review. A reviewer with appropriate authority considers relevant records, interviews and your account. A person whose conduct is at issue will not be the sole decision-maker. Clinical concerns receive appropriate clinical review. We may ask follow-up questions, but missing nonessential information will not automatically prevent us from reviewing the concern. We preserve relevant information and document actions taken.

Response. We provide a written decision within 30 calendar days of receiving the grievance, sooner when the circumstances warrant. If an extension is needed, we provide written notice explaining the reason and expected response date. An extension does not replace a shorter mandatory deadline or delay needed protective action.

The response will describe the issues considered, the review undertaken, the conclusion and reasons that can be shared, any action affecting you, and further review options. We may be unable to disclose another person's records, confidential personnel action or protected investigation material. That limitation does not prevent us from explaining the outcome as meaningfully as the law allows.

6.6 If you disagree with our response

Our internal review levels are Level 1: your counselor or provider, including a nurse practitioner or physician; Level 2: the Clinical Director; and Level 3: the Executive Director or Program Director, who issues the final internal decision. Tell the person handling your grievance if you want it reviewed at the next level, and explain your disagreement or provide additional information. You may contact a higher level directly when the lower-level reviewer is involved, unavailable or unable to address an urgent risk; contact Arthur Allayev at arthur@arisevida.com if the concern involves Mike Fagan, or Mike Fagan at mike@arisevida.com if it involves Arthur. If both are involved, you may report to an appropriate outside agency without completing these internal levels.

These internal review levels are not prerequisites to external reporting and do not extend an insurer's appeal, agency complaint or court deadline. The final internal decision does not limit any external review right.

If your concern relates to an insurance denial, reduction or termination of benefits, submit the required appeal to the insurer or agency that made that decision. Merely sending AriseVida a grievance does not file that appeal. We can help identify the relevant notice and provide appropriate supporting records, with required authorization.

6.7 Outside complaint and appeal options

Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS). You may report concerns about a licensed healthcare facility directly through the ADHS licensing complaint portal. Identify the actual facility name and location and choose the relevant facility category. The regulator determines its jurisdiction; services or residences with different license categories may follow different routes.

AHCCCS managed-care members. Contact your plan's Grievance and Appeals Department using your member card or handbook. A grievance concerns dissatisfaction; an appeal asks the plan to reconsider an adverse benefit determination. For ordinary Medicaid managed-care appeals, federal rules generally allow 60 calendar days from the notice date to appeal, while a grievance may be filed at any time. Federal filing requirements.

Standard managed-care appeal resolution generally cannot exceed 30 calendar days; an expedited appeal generally cannot exceed 72 hours, subject to allowed extensions. Ask for expedited review if delay could seriously jeopardize health or functioning. After an unfavorable appeal, the notice explains State Fair Hearing rights; federal rules require a filing window of 90–120 calendar days, as specified by the state. Follow the actual notice and seek help promptly. Federal resolution and hearing requirements.

Continued benefits. Ask your plan immediately whether services may continue during an appeal and what request is required. These deadlines can be much shorter than the appeal deadline; continuation is not automatic, and repayment can apply if the decision is upheld. Do not wait for our review.

AHCCCS fee-for-service and AIHP. These members use AHCCCS's process rather than a managed-care plan's process. For assistance, contact the Office of the General Counsel at 602-417-4232 or 1-800-654-8713, extension 74232. Follow the written decision's filing instructions; AHCCCS directs medical-service appeals to its Office of the General Counsel and eligibility appeals to the deciding agency. AHCCCS grievance and appeal instructions.

Serious Mental Illness (SMI) rights. Additional Arizona procedures may apply to a person with an SMI determination, including some people who are not Medicaid eligible. AHCCCS describes a one-year limit for an SMI rights grievance and generally 60 days for an SMI service appeal. These are different processes from ordinary managed-care grievances. The AHCCCS Office of Human Rights assists Arizona SMI members with understanding and exercising rights; designated advocacy depends on Special Assistance eligibility. Call 1-800-421-2124 for help identifying the applicable process.

For a privacy or civil-rights concern, contact Arthur Allayev at arthur@arisevida.com, or contact Mike Fagan at mike@arisevida.com if the complaint involves Arthur. Privacy complaints, civil-rights complaints and professional-license complaints also have outside routes described in our HIPAA Notice, Nondiscrimination Notice and Safety or Quality-of-Care Concern page. You may use more than one appropriate route. We safeguard grievance information under applicable privacy laws and retain it according to required schedules and any preservation obligation; we cannot promise absolute secrecy or a particular outcome.