Assisted Living & Independent Living Communities.
Residents who need skilled nursing, therapy, or aide services beyond what the community provides can receive home health care in place, under a physician’s order, without relocating.
Referral Partners
Home Health Referral Partners Across Six Southern California Counties
If you’re a discharge planner, case manager, physician, or care coordinator deciding where a patient goes for home health care, this page is for you.
Empress Healthcare Inc. is a Medicare-certified, California-licensed home health agency serving patients across Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Santa Barbara Counties — from the San Fernando Valley communities of Chatsworth, Northridge, and Woodland Hills, to Thousand Oaks, Anaheim, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, and Santa Barbara. We work alongside hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, physician practices, and the many other professionals who coordinate a patient’s next step in care — and we built our referral process around how your day actually works: a fast, simple way to send a referral, clear confirmation that it was received, and ongoing communication back to you while the patient is in our care.
What referral partners can expect from us
- A referral process that doesn’t require a login or a portal. Call, fax, or email — the same intake team receives all three.
- Confirmation of receipt the same business day, so you know the referral didn’t disappear into a queue.
- Ongoing communication with the referring provider as the plan of care is established and as the patient’s needs change — not just at admission.
- Skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical social work, and home health aide services, each delivered under a physician-directed plan of care.
- Coverage across all six counties we serve, with service availability confirmed quickly so you’re not waiting to find out whether we can take the case.
Home health services may be covered by Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medi-Cal managed care plans,
and many private insurance plans when coverage criteria — including a physician order and homebound status,
where applicable — are met. Our intake team verifies benefits as part of the referral process.
Hospitals, SNFs & IRFs
A Discharge Planning Home Health Agency You Can Count On
Discharge planning and case management teams are balancing length-of-stay pressure, a patient’s actual readiness to go home, and making sure the next provider in the chain is reliable. As a home health referral partner, our job is to make the handoff simple on your end.
When a hospital, SNF, or IRF discharge planner sends us a referral, we:
- Confirm receipt the same business day and let you know if anything is missing — physician orders, face-to-face encounter documentation, current medication list, or pertinent history — so the file doesn’t bounce back to you later.
- Reach out to the ordering physician directly for orders and required documentation, rather than routing that work back through your discharge team.
- Schedule the start-of-care visit promptly once orders and insurance verification are complete, and keep the discharging facility informed if timing changes.
- Communicate with the care team at transitions — admission, significant changes in condition, and discharge from our services — so the patient’s record stays connected across settings.
Well-coordinated home health care, started promptly after discharge, is one of the ways a patient avoids an unplanned return to the hospital. We treat that continuity as part of our job, not an extra.
SNF-to-home-health referral or IRF discharge? The same fax and email intake line below works for every referring unit — no separate process to learn per facility.
Physician Practices
Ordering Home Health for Your Patients
Primary care and specialist offices — cardiology, orthopedics, neurology, oncology, and wound care practices among them — are often the ones who first recognize that a patient needs skilled care at home: a new wound that needs regular assessment, a post-surgical patient who needs PT before they can safely manage stairs, a heart failure patient who needs closer monitoring between office visits, or a patient whose mobility has declined enough that the next follow-up should happen at home.
As a physician referral home health partner, we aim to make that order easy to place and easy to track:
- Your office can fax or email the referral directly — no separate portal account to set up.
- We prepare the plan of care from your order and send it back to your office for signature as care begins. Separately, for the Medicare-required face-to-face encounter, we confirm with your office that the encounter took place within the required timeframe and obtain and track the certifying physician’s own documentation of it — that documentation is yours to complete, and we follow up only to make sure it’s on file, not to write it for you.
- Your practice receives updates on the patient’s status and any plan-of-care changes that need your order, so you’re not finding out after the fact.
- For specialty cases — wound care, post-surgical orthopedic recovery, oncology support, neurological conditions, cardiac management — our nursing and therapy staff coordinate directly with your office on the clinical specifics that matter for that diagnosis.
If your practice has never sent a home health referral before, our intake team will walk your staff through what’s needed the first time you call.
Other Referral Partners We Work With
Hospitals, SNFs/IRFs, and physician practices are our most frequent referral sources, but we work with the full range of professionals who help a patient figure out their next step in care:
Managed Care Plans, ACOs & IPAs.
We work within health plan networks and care-coordination programs, and our intake team verifies plan benefits and authorization requirements as part of accepting a referral.
Palliative Care & Hospice Programs.
For patients who aren’t yet appropriate for hospice, or who need skilled home health care alongside a palliative care program, we coordinate with the care-management team to keep services distinct and well-communicated — never duplicating what the other program already provides.
Workers’ Compensation Case Managers.
We accept referrals for patients recovering from a work-related injury who need skilled nursing or therapy at home, coordinated with the case manager and treating physician.
Outpatient Rehab Clinics, Dialysis Centers, Urgent Care & ER Discharge Coordinators.
When a patient seen in one of these settings needs a physician order for home-based nursing or therapy rather than outpatient visits, we accept the referral and coordinate directly with the ordering provider.
Social Workers & Area Agencies on Aging.
When a home health referral is one part of a broader plan to help an older adult or a person with a disability remain safely at home, we’re glad to coordinate with the rest of that plan.
Every referral path above reaches the same intake team, using the same fax and email contact below — there’s no separate process to learn depending on where the referral comes from.
How to Send a Referral
1. Send the referral.
Fax or email our intake team — from a hospital, SNF, physician’s office, health plan, or any of the professionals above. Please include demographics and insurance information, physician orders (if already available), face-to-face encounter documentation, a current medication list, and pertinent history.
2. We confirm receipt and verify coverage.
We confirm receipt the same business day, contact the ordering physician for any orders or documentation still needed, and verify the patient’s benefits.
3. A nurse schedules the start-of-care visit.
A registered nurse calls the patient (or their representative) to schedule a time that works for them, completes the start-of-care assessment in the home, and sends the plan of care to the ordering physician for signature.
No portal account or login is required to send a referral. Fax and email reach the same intake team and are checked throughout the business day.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counties does Empress Healthcare serve?
Empress Healthcare provides home health services across Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Santa Barbara Counties.
How do I send a referral to Empress Healthcare?
Fax the referral to (818) 527-1356 or email it to Intake@empresshealthcare.com. No portal account is required — our intake team receives referrals by fax, email, and phone, and confirms receipt the same business day.
What information should be included with a referral?
Please include patient demographics and insurance information, physician orders (if available), face-to-face encounter documentation, a current medication list, and pertinent history. If anything is missing, our intake team will follow up directly with the ordering physician.
Does Empress Healthcare accept referrals from managed care plans, ACOs, or IPAs?
Yes. We work within health plan networks and care-coordination programs, and our intake team verifies plan benefits and any required authorization as part of accepting the referral.
Is home health care covered by Medicare?
Home health services may be covered by Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medi-Cal managed care plans, and many private insurance plans when coverage criteria — including a physician order — are met. Our intake team verifies benefits for every referral.
Why Partners Choose Empress Healthcare
Empress Healthcare Inc. is a Medicare-certified, California-licensed home health agency, accredited by The Joint Commission, and a veteran-owned business. We serve patients across Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Santa Barbara Counties with skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical social work, and home health aide services — each delivered under a plan of care your referring provider directs and signs off on.
Send a referral
Referral fax(818) 527-1356
Referral emailIntake@empresshealthcare.com
Call us(818) 527-1358
HoursMonday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., with a nurse on call after hours
Empress Healthcare Inc. does not require referring facilities or providers to use any particular referral method, and there is no cost to any referral source for sending a referral. This page is intended for professionals coordinating a patient’s care. Patients and family members seeking home health care for themselves or a loved one can find that information on the “How to Start Care” section of empresshealthcare.com.