Quality Guidelines: Administrative Complaint Procedures

Submit a complaint or correction

Follow this procedure to submit a complaint or request a correction of information disseminated by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) under Section 515 of Public Law 106-554.

Complaints and requests for review and correction of information must be made in writing. Send the complaint or request to NCHS by email or mail.

Required information

The complaint or request must state that it is being "submitted for correction under Section 515 of Public Law 106-554."

The complaint or request must include all the following information:

• A detailed description of the specific material that needs to be corrected
• Where the material can be found
  • Publication title, date, and publication number (if any), or
  • Website and webpage address (URL), or
  • Speech title, presenter, and date and place of delivery
• The specific reason or reasons for believing the information is in error and any supporting documentation
• The specific recommendations for correcting the information A
• description of how the information error affects the person making the complaint or request
• The name, mailing address, telephone number, email address, and organizational affiliation of the person making the complaint or request

Responsibilities of the submitter

The person submitting the complaint bears the "burden of proof" to demonstrate why a correction is needed and how the type of correction they seek will address the error.

Responses to complaints and corrections

NCHS's responsibilities

NCHS will review the information provided to determine whether a correction is needed and, if so, what action to take.

NCHS will respond to the requester by letter or email. Our response will explain the findings of the review and any actions that we will take.

Our response will consider—

• Nature and timeliness of the information involved
• Significance of the correction on the use of the information
• Magnitude of the correction

Our response also will describe the process for requesting reconsideration of our decision.

NCHS will respond to all requests for correction within 60 days of receipt. If the request requires more than 60 days to resolve, we will—

• Inform the person who submitted the complaint that more time is required
• Provide the reason or reasons why more time is needed
• Estimate a future decision date

Appeals process

If person who submitted the complaint or request does not agree with NCHS's decision, including any corrective action we have taken, they may request reconsideration of the decision. They must send their request for reconsideration in writing within 30 days of receiving the NCHS decision.

The appeal must state the reason or reasons why the NCHS response is insufficient or inadequate. Requests for appeal must include a copy of the original request and a copy of the NCHS response. Appeal requests must be clearly marked with the words "Information Quality Appeal" and sent to NCHS by email or mail.

The NCHS official who reviewed the original complaint will not be responsible for responding to the appeal.

NCHS will respond to all requests for appeals within 60 days of receipt. If the request requires more than 60 days to resolve, we will—

• Inform the person who submitted the complaint that more time is required
• Provide the reason or reasons why more time is needed
• Estimate a future decision date