ALW referral checklist for professionals

Have your organization, role and work email, and the patient's setting, county and general need. Nothing else is needed to start. Beta takes the referral through its secure referral portal, or by phone if you prefer. If records are needed later, Beta tells you how to send them. Do not send names, records, identifiers or clinical details by email. Ticks on this page are not saved. Print or copy the page to keep it.

Refer a patient or client

Important: A referral is not an eligibility decision, a waiver slot, facility acceptance or a move-in date. The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) keeps the waitlist and controls slot release. Beta is a Care Coordination Agency (CCA). It cannot promise timing.

Part 1: have ready for the call

Your organization, role and callback number
The patient's current setting
The admission date, if the patient is in a nursing facility or other institutional setting
The county where the patient would live
Medi-Cal status, as far as you know: full scope, share of cost or pending
The general need, in one or two sentences
Who makes decisions with or for the patient
Whether the patient or their representative agrees to the referral

That is enough. Beta's ALW team asks for anything else on the call.

Part 2: quick fit check

A referral is worth making when most answers are "yes" or "possibly". See the six requirements.

The patient is 21 or older
Full-scope Medi-Cal is active or being verified
Share of cost is zero, or the county is resolving it
Nursing-facility level of care looks plausible
The patient prefers assisted living to a nursing facility
Needs may be supported safely in an assisted-living facility that takes ALW
The patient is willing to live in one of the fifteen ALW counties
The patient or their representative can take part in the process
No expectation of a guaranteed slot, timeline or facility

An assisted-living facility is licensed as an RCFE (Residential Care Facility for the Elderly) or an ARF (Adult Residential Facility). The fifteen ALW counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma.

A share of cost does not stop the referral. The county decides Medi-Cal eligibility, not Beta or DHCS. The patient cannot enroll until the share of cost is zero.

Part 3: records come later

Start the referral even if records are missing. Do not send records with the first call or by email. If DHCS releases a slot and the patient chooses Beta, the CCA collects what the state needs. For a move from a nursing facility, the state's list (DHCS 1327) includes:

a Medi-Cal eligibility printout
the SNF face sheet
the ALW Assessment Tool, signed by a registered nurse
the Individualized Service Plan (ISP)
a durable power of attorney, if there is one
the Amenity, Freedom of Choice and Patient's Rights forms

The items come from the state's checklist; the order and the notes are Beta's.

Part 4: keep out of email

Never put these in an email:

Social Security numbers
complete Medi-Cal numbers
full charts
unredacted legal records
detailed behavioral-health or substance-use information
passwords
links to documents that anyone with the link can open

If records are needed, Beta's ALW team tells you how to send them. In an emergency, call 911.

Part 5: what to tell the patient or family

"I am referring you to a Care Coordination Agency to discuss whether California's Assisted Living Waiver may fit. The referral is not a guarantee of eligibility, a waiver slot, approval, facility acceptance or a move-in date."

Also say:

ALW has a state waitlist
ALW does not pay room and board
a discharge plan cannot depend on an ALW timeline

Send the referral from the portal with the items in Part 1, or call now. Keep a safe discharge plan in place meanwhile. See what happens after a referral.