The State - News from Sept. 5, 1988

Ellipse Care Center, the nation’s first nursing home for AIDS victims, is closing because it couldn’t attract patients with private insurance necessary for the center to continue. The nursing home in Redwood City was for AIDS patients too sick to remain at home but too healthy to spend their final days in a hospital. Ellipse lost more than $100,000 in its year of operation, San Mateo County officials said. On Sept. 30, the center’s 16 patients will be sent to San Francisco Bay Area hospitals. Planners had hoped beds at Ellipse would be filled by patients with private insurance, which would pay the full $225 daily rate. But most beds were filled by indigent patients.