Dallas–Fort Worth · Texas HCSSA
Every step to a Texas home care license, in the order HHSC wants them.
5 pages: what each step costs, how long it takes, and which one to start this week. Written for the nurse whose LLC has been sitting there for four months.
Free. Nothing about your credit, and no application.
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What’s in it
Seven phases, with every fee and day count traced to HHSC, the Secretary of State or the Texas Administrative Code. The sources are printed on the last page.
Which license you’re actually applying for.
Personal Assistance Services is non-medical and it is the fastest door. Licensed Home Health adds skilled nursing. The Medicare-certified version is the one CMS froze to new enrollments on May 13, 2026, and knowing which of the three you want changes every step after it.
The entity, and the account that quietly kills applications.
Form 205 at the Secretary of State, the EIN, the business bank account, the Type 2 NPI. Then the one most people miss: HHSC checks that you are in good standing with the Comptroller before it approves a license, so the franchise tax account gets opened now, not later.
The people, and why this is the part to start first.
Administrator and alternate administrator are both required, and both carry 24 clock hours of training under 26 TAC §558.259, split into an 8-hour part and a 16-hour part through a recognized provider. Those courses run on a schedule and seats fill. It is the long pole in the whole launch.
The application, and the two clocks on it.
The TULIP account, which form your entity type needs, the policies manual written against 26 TAC ch. 558, and the document set. HHSC has up to 45 days on a thoroughly complete application. On an incomplete one you get 30 days to answer, and then they get another 45.
Insurance, background checks, and the initial survey.
Get the managed care contract before you buy the policy, because the contract sets the limits. The registry and background checks have to clear before anyone is hired, and a hire made out of order is a finding waiting for your first survey.
Every fee on one line, and the week the money runs out.
The cost table, then a week-by-week timeline out to the first reimbursement, then a blank table to run your own payroll against it. Four caregivers at 30 hours a week at $15 an hour is roughly $7,800 a month in wages, and the first check lands well after the fourth Friday.
Three numbers that are already decided
The state’s figures, not ours. Current as of September 2026, and worth re-checking before you file.
The entity.
Certificate of Formation, Form 205, filed with the Texas Secretary of State. The EIN and the Type 2 NPI are free.
The license.
An initial three-year HCSSA license for a parent agency. An alternate delivery site is $1,000. Reporting a change to something already filed runs $30, and $100 more if you report it late.
The wait.
What HHSC has to process a thoroughly complete application. Incomplete restarts the clock, which is how six weeks turns into four months.
What the checklist can’t tell you
It can tell you what HHSC requires and roughly what it costs. It can’t tell you what you can raise, because that depends on your own credit file: your utilization, how many accounts you opened in the last twelve months, and how your income documents.
That part takes a soft credit check and about a day. We send a written number: how much your file supports, across how many accounts, and the calendar month each 0% period ends. Soft pull, no score impact, and no fee unless money actually funds.
If that’s the part you came for, start there instead. Otherwise the checklist covers the licensing, and the number can wait until you want it.
Straight answers
The initial three-year license is $2,625 for a parent agency, and $1,000 for an alternate delivery site. Add $300 for the Certificate of Formation at the Secretary of State. The EIN and the Type 2 NPI are free. Administrator training, the policies manual and your insurance are priced by whoever you buy them from, so the checklist tells you to get DFW quotes instead of giving you numbers we can’t stand behind.
Up to 45 days on a thoroughly complete application. If HHSC finds it incomplete, you have 30 days from the date of the notice to respond or the application is denied, and they get another 45 days after your response. The checklist is ordered the way it is to keep you out of that second loop.
The checklist is free and there is nothing to buy on this page. The link comes by text in about a minute and by email right after. I call once to ask where you are with the license. If you would rather I didn’t, reply STOP to the text and that is the end of it.
No, and earlier is better. Most people who read this have an LLC filed, an EIN, and nothing else done yet. That is the right time to be looking at the order of operations, because a few of these steps are expensive to redo.