A method for ACK/NACK determination reliability for a communication device includes a first step of defining (602) a supplementary indicator of message acceptability. A next step includes sending (604) data from a communication device to a BTS on an uplink channel. A next step includes checking (606) the data to see if it was properly received. A next step includes providing (608, 612) the supplementary indicator of message acceptability to the communication device in addition to ACK/NACK information. A next step includes utilizing (610, 614) the supplementary indicator of message acceptability to determine a reliability of the ACK/NACK information.