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Application Requirements
An application must be filed with the Continuing Care Contracts Branch before any of the following activities (Health and Safety Code section 1779):
- Accepting any deposit, reservation fee, or any other payment that is related to a promise or proposal to promise to provide continuing care
- Entering into any reservation agreement, deposit agreement, or continuing care contract
- Expanding an existing continuing care retirement community
- Converting an existing structure to a continuing care retirement community
- Recommencing marketing on a planned continuing care retirement community when an applicant has previously forfeited a permit to accept deposits
- Executing new continuing care contracts after a provisional certificate of authority or a certificate of authority has been inactivated, revoked, surrendered or forfeited
- Altering a provider organization through change in entity type, separation from another entity, merger, affiliation, spinoff or sale
In addition, a Provisional Certificate of Authority or a Certificate or Authority to operate a continuing care retirement community will not be issued to an applicant until the appropriate licenses for the entire facility have been obtained. Those are:
- A Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE) license, for the residential and assisted living portions of the community (pursuant to Health and Safety Code Chapter 3.2 (commencing with section 1569). This license is obtained from the Department's Community Care Licensing Division, Senior Care Program.
- A skilled nursing facility license, if one is on the continuing care retirement community premises, to operate a skilled nursing facility (pursuant to Health and Safety Code Chapter 2 (commencing with section 1250). This license is obtained from the Department of Public Health.
Applications for Permit to Accept Deposits/Certificates of Authority must be submitted to the Department in triplicate. A list of materials that comprise a complete application for new continuing care retirement communities, conversions or sale or transfer is outlined in Health and Safety Code 1779.4 and can be found in "Contents".
For all other applicants, it is advisable to contact the Department in advance of filing an application. In certain instances, the Department may determine that some application requirements do not apply and some portions of the application may be eliminated.