Questions we get asked.

In California’s Medi-Cal program, the Department of Health Care Services names the service "Recuperative Care (Medical Respite)". It is a short-term residential setting where someone continues recovering after a hospital stay or an acute illness, when they are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

It is one of the Community Supports offered by Medi-Cal managed care plans under CalAIM.

Yes. DHCS uses both terms in the same service name. The research literature more often says "medical respite". They describe the same category of service.

No. DHCS treats recuperative care as a distinct Community Support, separate from institutional levels of care. It is also distinct from Short-Term Post-Hospitalization Housing, which DHCS defines and prices separately.

Please do not refer a patient who needs skilled nursing or acute care to recuperative care in place of the appropriate level of care.

For Medi-Cal members, the service is arranged and paid for by the member’s Medi-Cal managed care plan as a Community Support, the category DHCS previously called In Lieu of Services. There is no cost to the member.

Eligibility screening and authorization are administered by the member’s managed care plan under its own Community Supports policy, and Community Supports are elective for plans. DHCS does not set a single statewide patient eligibility standard.

Before referring, confirm with the member’s plan that it offers Recuperative Care in that county, and what its current eligibility criteria are.

This is set by the plan rather than by DHCS. Commonly it is hospital discharge planners, case managers, enhanced care management providers, county partners, and the plan itself. Some plans accept member self-referral.

Ask the member’s plan for its current referral pathway rather than assuming a hospital-only route.

The required documentation and authorization form are set by the member’s managed care plan, not by DHCS. Request the plan’s Community Supports referral and authorization requirements directly.

Confirm the authorization is in place before discharge. The service is billed per day, and payment depends on the plan’s authorization.

The authorized length of stay, and any extension process, are set by the member’s managed care plan. DHCS pays for the service per day rather than per episode, so there is no fixed statewide stay length to quote.

Ask the plan for its standard initial authorization period and its reauthorization process before you refer.

DHCS’s Community Supports menu includes a separate service for the step afterwards, Short-Term Post-Hospitalization Housing. Whether a member steps down into that, into another Community Support, or into a community housing placement is a plan authorization decision, coordinated during the stay.

It is worth asking at referral, not at discharge, what the plan expects the next placement to be.

DHCS defines and prices it as a Community Support and describes a residential, non-institutional service model. It is not a hospital and not a skilled nursing facility, and DHCS does not establish a facility category for it in that guidance.

Permitting and local land-use requirements vary by jurisdiction and by what other services a site provides. For questions about a particular OSP location, call and ask us directly.

Call first so we can tell you whether we can take the patient, then send the completed referral packet by secure fax. Please do not send patient records by ordinary email.