California's hospice license moratorium ends January 1, 2027

Update (6 Oct 2026): We corrected this article's headline, which pointed readers to mid-2027. The moratorium on new hospice licenses runs until January 1, 2027 (Health and Safety Code §1751.70, as extended by AB 177). Applicants should be ready to file under the emergency-regulation requirements (22 CCR §74800 et seq.) on that date.

The moratorium began with SB 664 (2021), was extended by AB 177, and was always tied to CDPH producing an actual regulatory framework — which now exists in the emergency regulations effective June 22, 2026. Section 1751.70 bars CDPH from issuing a new hospice license "until January 1, 2027, or one year after the date emergency regulations are adopted"; CDPH's AFL 25-04 describes the same end date. With the emergency regulations adopted in June 2026, January 1, 2027 is the date to plan around. The moratorium also covers a new multiple location of an existing hospice, a change of geographic service area, and a change of location outside the approved service area; it does not affect renewals or other report-of-change applications such as changes of ownership.

What is not ambiguous: when licensure reopens, applicants will face the new emergency-regulation regime — management qualification requirements, staffing ratios, ownership disclosure, and demonstrated-need review for service areas — rather than the thin pre-2022 process. The era of the quickly obtained, quickly flipped California hospice license is over by design.