The services and housing summarized below are options for California’s continuum of care — from help at home to full-time intensive nursing in a facility to hospice care at the end of life.
Care at Home
Various types of home care provide people who have chronic health conditions and those recovering from illness or hospitalization with the help they need to remain at home, living as independently as possible. The care can include simple help with bathing and preparing meals to rehabilitation services to skilled nursing.
Additional care, as well as respite for caregivers, may be available from services offered outside the home, including:
- Adult day care, which provides protective supervision along with limited health monitoring and social activities
- Adult day health care, which offers social care along with more advanced medical care and therapies
Cost: Varies with care, from $15 per hour for licensed housekeeping help to $30 per hour for home health aides to about $75 daily for adult day health care
Payments Accepted: Medicare, Medi-Cal, and private pay, depending on specific care
Assisted Living Care
Commonly called residential care, community care, board and care, or continuing care retirement communities, these facilities range in size from small homes to large campuses. The services provided vary also, but most offer medication management, social activities, housekeeping, meals, and transportation. They are best suited for those who need assistance with basic activities such as dressing and bathing but do not require skilled nursing care.
Cost: Averages $3,700 monthly, with extra fees for pre-admission and special services
Payment Accepted: Private pay
Nursing Home Care
Nursing homes, identified by many different names, provide housing and meals, along with personal care, social services, and skilled nursing care for people whose physical or behavioral conditions make it difficult for them to live alone or with help from others.
Cost: Averages $7,000 monthly for a shared room, $8,150 for a private room
Payments Accepted: Medicare, Medi-Cal, and private pay
Developmentally Disabled Care
People with developmental disabilities who need continuous care and supervision can get care, housing, and meals in California’s intermediate care facilities for the developmentally disabled, or ICF/DDs. Nursing care is usually provided that cannot be given easily at home, such as monitoring tracheotomies, tube feeding, and catheters.
Cost: About $200 daily
Payments Accepted: Medicare for some limited costs, Medi-Cal
Hospice Care
Hospice provides comfort care for terminally ill patients — those with a prognosis of six months or less — at home or in a care facility. The goal is to control pain and symptoms rather than to cure the illness. Hospice caregivers who work as a team of medical professionals and trained volunteers help with the patient’s medical, psychological, and spiritual needs and also offer grief counseling for survivors after death.
The California Department of Public Health licenses two types of providers: Hospices and Hospice Facilities.
Hospice: Hospice services are provided in the patient’s home or primary place of residence, or as a service of a Congregate Living Health Facility (CLHF), or to residents of a facility via contract, based on the medical needs of the patient.
Hospice Facility: A hospice facility provides inpatient hospice care. These facilities have a license to provide hospice services with a capacity of no more than 24 beds. Hospice services include, but are not limited to, routine care, continuous care, inpatient respite care, and inpatient hospice care, and is operated by a provider of hospice services.
Cost: Free to $200 daily
Payments Accepted: Medicare, Medi-Cal, and private pay
