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 turns the resident file into a tracked checklist: every required document, its status, and its next update date, per resident, across every facility you run. Whether you operate 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.