Memory Care Admission Requirements: What You Need Before Move-In

What the Facility Needs From You

The sales coordinator makes it sound simple: tour, sign, move in. The reality involves a stack of clinical documentation, legal paperwork, and financial disclosures that families typically scramble to assemble under time pressure. Knowing what's required before you start touring saves weeks of backtracking.

Every memory care facility runs its own pre-admission process. Requirements vary by state and facility, but they commonly include clinical documentation, legal authority, and financial information. Here's what you'll need.

Clinical Assessment and Physician Documentation

The facility needs documentation that the person has a diagnosed cognitive impairment and that their care needs match what the facility's license allows it to provide.

Physician's health report. Some states require a physician's report completed within a specified period before admission. In California, this is the LIC 602A — a standardized form the physician completes documenting the person's medical conditions, functional limitations, medications, and behavioral concerns. Other states have equivalent forms, though the names and formats vary.

This report serves two purposes: it documents that the person's needs fall within the facility's licensed scope of care, and it identifies conditions the facility must accommodate (dietary needs, fall risk, medication regimens, behavioral patterns). A physician who hasn't seen your parent recently may need a new office visit to complete the form accurately.

Cognitive assessment documentation. The facility will want to see recent cognitive screening results — typically a MMSE or MoCA score, and ideally a FAST staging assessment. These establish the baseline cognitive function that the facility uses to set the care tier and plan programming. If your parent's physician hasn't run these assessments recently, request them before you start the admission process. A MoCA score below 18 can indicate established dementia, while FAST Stage 5 generally signals the need to evaluate assisted living; memory care placement depends on functional and safety needs.

Medication list. A complete, current list of all medications — prescription and over-the-counter — with dosages, frequencies, and prescribing physicians. The facility's nursing staff will reconcile this against their own protocols, check for interactions, and set up the medication administration schedule. Bring the actual bottles if you can — medication names are often confused in verbal transmission.

Behavioral assessment. The admissions team needs to understand the person's behavioral patterns: Does the person sundowner? Exit-seek? Become physically aggressive? Refuse personal care? The answers determine whether the facility can safely manage the person under their current staffing and licensing, and where the person falls in the care-tier billing structure.

This is where some facilities filter out residents they'd rather not admit. A person with severe physical aggression may exceed what a facility's staff is trained or willing to manage. A facility that accepts your parent without asking detailed behavioral questions may not be prepared for what's coming.

Legal Documentation

Power of attorney. The facility needs a copy of the durable power of attorney (financial and healthcare) that authorizes you to act on the person's behalf. If you're signing the residency agreement as the resident's agent, the POA document is what gives you the legal authority to do so.

If no POA exists and the person has lost capacity to execute one, the family generally needs court-appointed guardianship or conservatorship before someone can sign on the person's behalf — a process that costs $5,000 to $15,000 and takes six to twelve months. Some facilities will accept a temporary emergency guardianship while the full guardianship is pending, but this varies by state and facility.

Advance directives. The facility will ask for copies of the person's advance directive, living will, or POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) form. These documents govern what happens in a medical emergency — whether the person wants CPR, hospitalization, ventilator support, or comfort measures only. If these documents don't exist, the facility will typically provide their own forms for the legal representative to complete.

DNR orders, if applicable, need to be on file with the facility and visible to emergency responders. Some states require specific forms (like the POLST) that EMS will honor; a generic living will may not be sufficient in an emergency.

Financial Documentation

Proof of funding. The facility needs to verify that the person (or their family) can pay for care. For private-pay residents, this may involve bank statements, investment account summaries, or long-term care insurance policy documentation. For residents who will transition to Medicaid, the facility needs to understand the timeline — when Medicaid eligibility is expected, whether an application is pending, and whether the facility accepts Medicaid (many private memory care facilities don't).

Long-term care insurance. If the person has a long-term care insurance policy, bring the policy document. Benefits typically activate when the person needs help with two or more ADLs (the "benefit trigger"), which most memory care residents will meet. The facility's billing office can help file claims, but they need the policy details to do so.

VA benefits. If the person is a veteran or the surviving spouse of a veteran, VA Aid and Attendance benefits may help offset costs. The claim uses the applicable VA pension application, such as VA Form 21P-527EZ or VA Form 21P-534EZ, together with VA Form 21-2680, the medical examination report. Processing can take time, so start the application well before admission if possible.

The Pre-Admission Visit

Most facilities require a pre-admission assessment visit — either the facility's clinical team visits the person at home or in the hospital, or the person visits the facility. This assessment confirms that the facility can meet the person's care needs within their licensing and staffing capacity. It's also when the clinical team scores the care tier for billing purposes.

The pre-admission visit is a two-way evaluation. While the facility is assessing your parent, you should be assessing the facility's clinical team. Are they asking detailed questions about behavioral patterns, or running through a checklist? Do they discuss how they'd handle specific scenarios (sundowning, medication refusal, exit-seeking), or give generic reassurances?

A facility that does a thorough pre-admission assessment is less likely to initiate an involuntary discharge later because they discovered care needs they weren't prepared for.

Timeline

Working backwards from a target move-in date:

• 60–90 days out: Schedule the physician's exam to complete the health report. Begin financial documentation assembly. If guardianship is needed, start the legal process.
• 30–60 days out: Complete the facility's pre-admission assessment. Submit the application with all clinical and legal documentation. Confirm the financial arrangement and billing tier.
• 7–14 days out: Sign the residency agreement (after having it reviewed by an elder-law attorney). Confirm the medication list and delivery arrangements with the facility pharmacy.
• Move-in day: Morning arrivals tend to go more smoothly — the person has a full day to orient to the new environment before sundowning hours.

Our Memory Care vs Assisted Living guide includes a pre-admission documentation checklist and timeline worksheet, along with the clinical assessment tools and contract review checklist, so you can manage the entire process without scrambling for paperwork the week before move-in.