CARF is the only accreditor for continuing care retirement communities
The nation's first and only accreditation system for CCRCs—the Continuing Care Accreditation Commission (CCAC)—was founded in 1985 and began operations through the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (now known as LeadingAge). In 2003, CARF acquired CCAC.
In 2017, the CCAC entity and accreditation process was fully integrated into CARF. The CCAC name and accreditation seal are no longer in use, but CARF continues the unique attributes of the accreditation process for CCRCs, including the Five-Year Term of Accreditation, the annual financial review, and the financial ratio benchmarks.