El Paso Senior AdvisorWho licenses and inspects nursing homes in El Paso?
HHSC licenses nursing facilities under Health and Safety Code chapter 242 and 26 TAC chapter 554, and for homes certified for Medicare or Medicaid it also performs the federal surveys on CMS's behalf, roughly once a year plus complaint investigations.
HHSC lists 22 licensed nursing facilities in the metro with 2,585 beds; CMS rates 22, and in the October 1, 2026 release 10 hold one star overall while 1 hold four or five. Every licensed nursing facility in the metro is also CMS-certified, so each appears on Medicare's Care Compare with star ratings, inspection results, staffing and penalties. Our nursing home pages reproduce those CMS figures with the data date and compare each home with the El Paso median.
How should El Paso families read CMS star ratings?
CMS's overall rating combines three parts: health inspections, staffing and quality measures, each rated one to five stars, with the inspection score carrying the most weight; the rating compares homes within a state, so a Texas three-star home is judged against other Texas homes.
El Paso's ratings skew low in recent releases, which makes the detail behind the stars more useful than the headline. Look at the number and type of deficiencies, whether any were complaint-driven, nurse staffing hours per resident day, turnover, and fines. A home with a low rating but improving inspections and stable staff may be a better choice than one whose rating rests on a single good year.
Are El Paso nursing homes certified for both Medicare and Medicaid?
In CMS's data, every certified nursing home in El Paso and Socorro participates in both Medicare and Medicaid, which means a resident who starts on Medicare rehab can usually stay as a long-term Medicaid resident if they qualify and a long-term bed is available.
Participation is not the same as an open bed. Some homes keep a separate short-term rehab hall, and long-term Medicaid beds can have waiting lists. Ask the business office directly whether a long-term Medicaid bed would be available to your parent and whether moving from rehab to long-term care means changing rooms.
What is the Texas State Veterans Home in El Paso?
Ambrosio Guillen Texas State Veterans Home on Kenworthy Street in Northeast El Paso is a 160-bed Texas State Veterans Home with 60 Alzheimer's beds in HHSC's directory. Texas State Veterans Homes are run under the Texas Veterans Land Board for eligible veterans, their spouses and Gold Star parents, and they are licensed and CMS-certified like other nursing facilities.
Admission requires proof of eligibility and a medical need for nursing care, and the VA pays part of the daily cost for eligible veterans. Its CMS record is on our directory like every other home. Families of veterans should also ask about VA contract nursing home care and the VA's own programs; see veterans and military families.
What penalties can a Texas nursing facility face?
Nursing facilities can face federal civil money penalties and payment denials from CMS as well as state administrative penalties from HHSC, and the most serious problem homes can be placed in CMS's Special Focus Facility program with more frequent inspections.
CMS shows fines and payment denials from the past three years on each home's profile, and it flags homes with recent abuse citations. A single fine is not proof of a current problem, but repeated fines for the same kind of deficiency are a pattern worth asking about. Ask for the most recent statement of deficiencies and the plan of correction before you choose.
Side by side
| Nursing home oversight in Texas includes | Nursing home oversight in Texas does not include | |
|---|---|---|
| State | An HHSC license and state inspections | Ratings from HHSC |
| Federal | CMS certification, standard surveys and star ratings | A promise a rating is current to the day |
| Penalties | CMS fines, payment denials and state penalties | Automatic closure for a low rating |
| Public data | Inspections, staffing and fines on Care Compare | Private-pay prices |
Sources: Texas Health and Safety Code chapters 142, 242 and 247; 26 Texas Administrative Code chapters 553, 554, 558 and 559; HHSC program handbooks; CareScout, CMS and VA rate tables, as cited above. See our editorial standards.
