5 lessonsAbout 35 minutesNo CE or licensure credit

Allowable, restricted or prohibited? A decision guide to RCFE health conditions

Five lessons for RCFE leaders and referrers on whether a home may accept or keep a person with a given health condition: incidental medical services, what a restricted condition requires, the prohibited conditions and relocation, exceptions and the hospice route, and reading the medical assessment.

Written for

  • Facility leadership
  • Healthcare and referral professionals
Course version
2026.10.3
Text checked against its sources

Before you begin

What you will be able to do

  • Place a health condition named in a referral or a medical assessment as allowable, restricted, prohibited or a question for licensing, and name the section that decides it.
  • Before a person with a restricted condition moves in, list what the home must have in place: the physician's documentation, the professional who performs the procedure, talks with other providers, hands-on training and any Department approval.
  • When a current resident develops a prohibited condition, name what follows: the report, the limits on her stay, a Department review or relocation order, and her right to a team review.
  • Tell whether an exception request or the hospice route applies, what each needs, and who decides it, before anyone acts.
  • Read a medical assessment (LIC 602A) for the answers that drive the decision, and spot what is missing or out of date.

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Sources

Sources behind this course

Each lesson lists the sources it uses. Open the original for the exact rule, form or instruction that applies to your work. The source library describes each one in more detail.

California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

Title 22, section 87101: Definitions

The definitions of an allowable health condition, an appropriately skilled professional and a licensed professional.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a)(6), (a)(10) and (l)(3).

Open section 87101 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 87209 (Program flexibility)

How a waiver or exception request is made: in writing, in advance, with prior written approval.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a) and (b).

Open section 87209 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

Title 22, section 87458: Medical assessment

The medical assessment a licensee obtains before accepting a resident, and what it contains.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a) to (c).

Open section 87458 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 87611 (General requirements for allowable health conditions)

Department approval for licensees with recent enforcement history; the record of care; monitoring.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a) to (f).

Open section 87611 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 87612 (Restricted health conditions)

The eleven restricted health conditions and health services, each with its own section.

Where to look: Subdivision (a)(1) to (11).

Open section 87612 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 87613 (General requirements for restricted health conditions)

Communication and hands-on training before admission; changes in condition; refusals.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a) to (d).

Open section 87613 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 87615 (Prohibited health conditions)

The conditions with which a person shall not be admitted or retained.

Where to look: Subdivision (a)(1) to (6).

Open section 87615 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 87616 (Exceptions for health conditions)

The written exception request, what it contains, and the hospice exception.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a) to (c).

Open section 87616 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 87617 (Departmental review of health conditions)

Department review of a resident's condition and the documents due within 10 days.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a) and (b).

Open section 87617 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

Title 22, section 87618: Oxygen administration, gas and liquid

When a home may accept or retain a resident who uses oxygen, and the home's duties.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a) to (c).

Open section 87618 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 87632 (Hospice care waiver)

The facility hospice care waiver: the request, approval and the five-working-day notice.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a) to (e).

Open section 87632 on Cornell LII
California CDSS (regulation text on Cornell LII)

Title 22, section 87633: Hospice care waiver

The conditions for hospice care in the home, the care plan, reports and the exception for restricted and prohibited conditions.

Where to look: Subdivisions (a), (b), (g) and (j).

Open section 87633 on Cornell LII
California CDSS

Residential-care regulations

The RCFE regulations, Title 22, Division 6, Chapter 8, Article 11 (health-related services and conditions), as published by CDSS.

Where to look: Sections 87609 (incidental medical services and home health agencies), 87628 (diabetes), 87629 (injections), 87631 (healing wounds), 87637 (relocation orders) and 87638 (resident review).

Open the CDSS regulation library
California CDSS

Community Care Licensing forms

The CDSS forms list, including LIC 602A (Medical Assessment for Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly) and LIC 602 (Physician's Report for Community Care Facilities).

Where to look: The I to L list: LIC 602 and LIC 602A and their revision dates.

Open the CDSS forms library
California CDSS

LIC 602A, Medical Assessment for Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly (4/26)

The state's medical assessment form for RCFEs: diagnoses, self-management, physical and mental health, medication management, ambulatory status and hospice care.

Where to look: The note to the medical professional (page 1), the diagnosis blocks (pages 2 and 3), medication management and ambulatory status (page 8), and hospice care (page 9).

Open LIC 602A (PDF)
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