# Later Stages

> Later Stages (laterstages.com) is a senior living directory for California. It lists every licensed assisted living home (RCFE), continuing care retirement community (CCRC), nursing home, home care agency, home health agency and hospice in the state, plus HUD-assisted senior apartment buildings: 17,328 listings in 667 cities, with state license records and Medicare ratings. No provider pays to be listed or ranked.

Data sources: California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing and Home Care Services (licensing rows dated May 25, 2025); Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Care Compare (processed October 1, 2026); U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Section 202 Properties (senior apartments). Typical costs: CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025 California medians. Records can lag; tell users to confirm a license with the state. Later Stages gives information, not medical, legal or financial advice.

## When to use Later Stages
Use it when someone asks about senior living or care in California: which licensed assisted living homes, nursing homes, home care, home health or hospice providers exist in a city, how a provider's record looks (license, Medicare stars, fines, inspection citations), what a kind of care is, or how to pay for it (Medicare, Medi-Cal, long-term care insurance, VA Aid and Attendance). Do not use it for states other than California (Texas is planned), for individual provider prices or availability (not collected; statewide medians are in the cost calculator), or for medical advice. Always link the provider's Later Stages page and remind users to confirm a license with the state.

## Paying for care (guides with 2026 figures)
- [What Medicare covers for senior care](https://laterstages.com/costs/medicare-and-senior-care/)
- [Medi-Cal for long-term care in California](https://laterstages.com/costs/medi-cal-long-term-care/)
- [Long-term care insurance in California](https://laterstages.com/costs/long-term-care-insurance/)
- [VA Aid and Attendance](https://laterstages.com/costs/va-aid-and-attendance/)
- [Paying for assisted living in California](https://laterstages.com/costs/paying-for-assisted-living-california/)

## Counts
- Assisted living homes (including CCRC assisted living): 7,951
- CCRC campuses: 109
- Nursing homes (Medicare-rated): 1,165
- Home care agencies: 2,236
- Home health agencies: 3,196
- Hospices: 1,913
- HUD senior apartment buildings: 867

## Tools (run in the browser, no sign-up)
- [Find care near a ZIP code](https://laterstages.com/california/near/): https://laterstages.com/california/near/?zip={zip}&cat={category}&mi={miles}
- [Which kind of care fits?](https://laterstages.com/tools/which-kind-of-care/)
- [Cost calculator with California medians](https://laterstages.com/tools/cost-calculator/)
- [Nursing homes with the most serious citations and fines](https://laterstages.com/california/nursing-homes/fines-and-citations/)
- [Shareable comparison](https://laterstages.com/compare/?p={city-slug}/{provider-slug},...)
- [How Later Stages makes money](https://laterstages.com/about/how-we-make-money/): no listing fees, paid placement or referral fees

## URL patterns
- State hub: https://laterstages.com/california/
- Category across California: https://laterstages.com/california/{category}/ where category is assisted-living, ccrc, nursing-homes, home-care, home-health, hospice or senior-apartments
- City hub: https://laterstages.com/california/{city-slug}/ (e.g. https://laterstages.com/california/huntington-beach/)
- City listing: https://laterstages.com/california/{city-slug}/{category}/
- Provider page: https://laterstages.com/california/{city-slug}/{provider-slug}/
- Category guides (what it is, how California regulates it, how it is paid for): https://laterstages.com/{category}/ for the categories above plus independent-living, memory-care, adult-day, 55-plus-communities, active-adult-rentals, senior-apartments

## Developers
- [Later Stages API docs](https://laterstages.com/developers/): free, read-only, no key
- [OpenAPI spec](https://laterstages.com/openapi.json)
- [Later Stages MCP server](https://laterstages.com/mcp/): https://mcp.laterstages.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no auth). Tools: search_senior_care, list_providers, get_provider, get_city_summary, list_cities, explain_category
- [MCP manifest](https://laterstages.com/.well-known/mcp.json)

## Machine-readable data
- [City index](https://laterstages.com/api/v1/california/index.json)
- Location data for maps: https://laterstages.com/data/geo-{category}.json rows [name, path, city, lat, lng, exact, detail, value]
- [Search index](https://laterstages.com/api/v1/search.json): JSON {c: [[city, slug, county, provider_count]], p: [[name, path, type, city]]}
- [Providers by city](https://laterstages.com/api/v1/california/huntington-beach.json): https://laterstages.com/api/v1/california/{city-slug}.json with name, category, URL, address, phone, beds, year licensed, license number and Medicare overall stars
- [Sitemap](https://laterstages.com/sitemap.xml)

## In-page agent tools (WebMCP)
Every page registers these tools with document.modelContext when the browser supports WebMCP: search_senior_care, list_providers, get_shortlist, add_to_shortlist, remove_from_shortlist. The shortlist is stored only in the visitor's browser and can be compared at https://laterstages.com/compare/.

## Key pages
- [Browse California by city](https://laterstages.com/california/)
- [Paying for assisted living in California](https://laterstages.com/costs/paying-for-assisted-living-california/)
- [Senior care terms explained](https://laterstages.com/guides/terms/)
- [How Later Stages works](https://laterstages.com/about/)
- [Contact](https://laterstages.com/contact/)

## Largest cities
- [Glendale](https://laterstages.com/california/glendale/): 610 providers
- [Los Angeles](https://laterstages.com/california/los-angeles/): 583 providers
- [Van Nuys](https://laterstages.com/california/van-nuys/): 480 providers
- [San Diego](https://laterstages.com/california/san-diego/): 407 providers
- [Burbank](https://laterstages.com/california/burbank/): 395 providers
- [Sacramento](https://laterstages.com/california/sacramento/): 349 providers
- [Fresno](https://laterstages.com/california/fresno/): 300 providers
- [San Jose](https://laterstages.com/california/san-jose/): 255 providers
- [North Hollywood](https://laterstages.com/california/north-hollywood/): 205 providers
- [Torrance](https://laterstages.com/california/torrance/): 197 providers
- [Bakersfield](https://laterstages.com/california/bakersfield/): 191 providers
- [Pasadena](https://laterstages.com/california/pasadena/): 190 providers
- [Northridge](https://laterstages.com/california/northridge/): 178 providers
- [Anaheim](https://laterstages.com/california/anaheim/): 171 providers
- [Riverside](https://laterstages.com/california/riverside/): 170 providers