RCFE Admission Paperwork: Every LIC Form You Need, Explained
A complete resident file starts before move-in day. Here's what belongs in it, who signs what, and which forms have to be updated later — the part most facilities miss.
Before move-in: appraisal forms
- LIC 602A — Physician's Report. Completed and signed by a licensed physician, this verifies the person is appropriate for non-medical residential care and details medical conditions, medications, and care needs. Get it early — physician offices are the slowest link in any admission, and you cannot properly assess someone without it.
- LIC 603 — Preplacement Appraisal. Documents functional abilities, daily living skills, and risks before admission. This is your written basis for the decision that your facility can actually meet this person's needs.
- LIC 625 — Appraisal/Needs and Services Plan. The individualized care plan built from the 602A and 603. This is a living document, not admission paperwork you file and forget — more on that below.
At admission: identification, rights, and agreements
- LIC 601 — Identification and Emergency Information. Emergency contacts, physician, preferred hospital, responsible party. In an actual emergency this form is the first thing staff reach for, so it has to be current.
- Admission Agreement. The contract covering services, rates, refund policy, and eviction/transfer terms. Title 22 dictates required contents (CDSS publishes LIC 604A as a guide); signed by the resident or their responsible party before or at admission.
- LIC 613C — Personal Rights. Every resident (or representative) must receive and acknowledge their personal rights. The current posting also belongs on your wall.
- LIC 605A — Release of Medical Information. Lets you obtain and share medical information with the physician and appropriate parties.
- LIC 621 — Personal Property and Valuables. An inventory of what the resident brings. Skipping it feels harmless until a family alleges something went missing and you have no record.
- LIC 627C — Consent for Emergency Medical Treatment. Authorizes emergency care when family or physician can't be reached in time.
The part everyone misses: forms that must be updated
An admission file that was perfect on move-in day can still earn citations two years later. The needs and services plan (LIC 625) must be reappraised when a resident's condition significantly changes — after a fall, a hospitalization, new dementia symptoms. Residents with dementia need at least annual physician's report updates. Emergency contacts change. If your incident reports show a hospitalization and the care plan wasn't touched, a DSS analyst will notice — it's one of the first cross-checks in a licensing visit.
Run admissions as a checklist, not a memory test
Between the physician's office, the family, and move-in logistics, admission paperwork is a coordination problem — and any form that depends on the administrator remembering it will eventually be the form that's missing. Title22 does not hold the resident file — no LIC 601, no 602A, no admission agreement; keeping resident health information out is what lets it run without a business associate agreement. What it holds is the checklist over it: "every current resident has a 602A on file, dated within the last year" as one dated yes or no for the facility, sitting beside your staff and facility requirements, so the gap surfaces on your dashboard rather than in an analyst's notes. Whether you run a single 6-bed home or several, plans scale accordingly.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Form versions and requirements change — always use the current forms from the CDSS website.