Short answer
Texas HHSC surveys Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing facilities roughly annually on two tracks, health and life safety code. Deficiencies are published with cited and corrected dates. Assisted living facilities are also inspected by HHSC but receive no federal star rating.
Reading a deficiency report
Almost every facility has deficiencies. A report with zero citations is unusual enough to be worth a second look rather than a sigh of relief. What matters is pattern, severity and correction.
- Severity. A citation for a missing signature on a form and a citation for actual harm to a resident appear in the same document. Read what the surveyor actually observed, not just the count.
- Repetition. The same deficiency cited across consecutive surveys says something a single citation does not.
- Correction. Reports show cited and corrected dates. A facility that corrects quickly is behaving differently from one that does not.
- Recency. Ownership and administrators change. A three-year-old pattern under previous management may or may not describe the building today — but ask about it directly.
CMS star ratings on Medicare Care Compare cover nursing facilities only. Texas assisted living facilities are not star-rated and do not appear on Care Compare. Assisted living oversight in Texas is state-only, through HHSC.
You can check any Texas facility's record free. Use TULIP for current license status and the legacy HHSC provider search for inspection and deficiency history. Read the full explanation →
