McAllen Senior AdvisorWhere do I look up a Texas facility's license?
Start with TULIP, HHSC's public long-term care provider search at tulip.hhs.texas.gov, which shows a facility's license number, type, status, capacity, Medicaid participation, recent inspection citations and enforcement actions; HHSC's downloadable active-license directories show the same licenses in bulk.
- Search TULIP by facility name or license number, filtered to Hidalgo County.
- Confirm the license status reads licensed and the type (Type A, Type B, nursing facility, DAHS) matches what the building told you.
- Open the inspections section: each citation shows the visit type and the exit date.
- Open the enforcement section for administrative penalties and the rules cited.
- Note the licensed capacity and any Alzheimer's certified capacity.
Our facility pages reproduce the TULIP data for every licensed assisted living facility in the county as of the date shown in each source line.
How do I check a nursing home's federal record?
Use Medicare's Care Compare, which shows CMS's star ratings, the full text of recent inspections, staffing levels, fines and payment denials for every certified nursing home, and which our nursing home pages summarize with Hidalgo County medians for comparison.
Read the deficiency text itself. A citation for a missing signature and a citation for failing to prevent a serious fall carry very different weight, and CMS's scope and severity letters show which is which. Look for repeated citations on the same topic across surveys, which say more than any single visit.
What counts as a warning sign in a Texas record?
Repeated citations in the same area, administrative penalties within the last two years, a license close to expiration with no renewal, an Alzheimer's certificate that has lapsed while the building still advertises memory care, or a CMS abuse icon on a nursing home all deserve direct questions.
None of these alone decides anything. A small home with one citation for a tuberculosis screening record is a different story from a building cited for medication errors on two visits running. Ask the administrator to walk you through the record; how they respond is part of the answer.
How do I check a home health or attendant agency?
Search the agency in HHSC's directory of Home and Community Support Services Agencies to confirm its license number and service categories, then ask the agency for its most recent HHSC survey and, if it is Medicare-certified, look it up on Medicare's home health compare tool.
Our home health and hospice roster and personal care agency roster list every agency with an office in Hidalgo County, with the services each is licensed for and its first-license date.
Side by side
| A clean state record means | A clean state record does not mean | |
|---|---|---|
| Citations | No recent citations or penalties are on file | Nothing has ever gone wrong |
| Timing | The last visit found the building compliant | The building is compliant today |
| Ratings | Nothing; Texas does not rate assisted living | A five-star equivalent |
| Next step | A good basis for a visit | A reason to skip the visit |
Sources: Texas Health and Safety Code ch. 247 and 242; 26 TAC chapters 553, 554, 558 and 559; HHSC directories, TULIP and handbooks; CMS; CareScout; VA rate tables, as cited above. See our editorial standards.
