Home health agency ratings in the Rio Grande Valley, city by city

As of Oct 21, 2026, the 74 Rio Grande Valley home health agencies with a federal quality star rating averaged 2.33 out of 5, and just 7 of them held 4 stars or higher. Harlingen rates best of the five cities we break out, at 3.25 stars, and Edinburg rates lowest at 1.56. If you own, buy or plan to open an agency, that gap tells you how much competition you face on quality.

The stars come from federal home health quality ratings, which update every quarter. We match them to the Valley’s certified agencies and publish the totals on our health care page. The methodology page explains how we count.

How do Valley home health agencies rate on federal stars?

In the October release, the Valley had 122 certified home health agencies, and 74 of them carried a quality star rating. Roughly four in ten agencies had no star at all. Anyone comparing Valley agencies by stars is choosing from about six in ten of the market.

The rated group skews low. The average was 2.33 stars out of 5, and 71.6% of rated agencies sat at 2.5 stars or lower. At the top, 7 agencies reached 4 stars or higher.

Picture ten rated Valley agencies side by side. About seven would be at 2.5 stars or below, and fewer than one would be at 4 stars or above. In our view, the 4 star agencies here have something few of their competitors can show.

Which Valley cities have the best rated home health agencies?

The city breakdown covers McAllen, Brownsville, Edinburg, Harlingen and Weslaco. Figures are from the Oct 21 reading.

City	County	Agencies	Rated	Average stars
McAllen	Hidalgo	37	22	2.36
Brownsville	Cameron	15	12	2.54
Edinburg	Hidalgo	12	8	1.56
Harlingen	Cameron	10	6	3.25
Weslaco	Hidalgo	10	5	2.4

Harlingen leads with an average of 3.25 stars across its 6 rated agencies. That’s almost a full star above the Valley average, and it’s the only one of the five cities above 3 stars.

Brownsville comes second at 2.54 stars, with 12 rated agencies. Weslaco follows at 2.4 and McAllen at 2.36, and both sit close to the Valley average of 2.33.

Edinburg sits at the bottom. Its 8 rated agencies average 1.56 stars, the lowest of the five cities and well under the Valley average. Harlingen and Edinburg are more than a star and a half apart.

Some of these averages rest on only a few agencies. Weslaco’s average comes from 5 rated agencies and Harlingen’s from 6, so a single agency gaining or losing a star can move the city average noticeably next quarter. We’re more confident in the McAllen and Brownsville figures because they cover more agencies.

How many home health agencies are in McAllen?

McAllen had 37 certified home health agencies in the October reading, close to a third of the Valley’s 122. That’s more than twice as many as Brownsville, which had 15 and is the next largest city in the table. Edinburg had 12, and Harlingen and Weslaco had 10 each.

Most of the agencies in the table are in Hidalgo County: McAllen, Edinburg and Weslaco together hold well over half of them. Cameron County’s two cities, Brownsville and Harlingen, have fewer agencies but higher average stars.

The share of agencies with a rating also varies by city. In Brownsville, 12 of 15 agencies are rated, the highest share of the five. Edinburg has 8 of 12 rated, Harlingen 6 of 10, and McAllen 22 of 37, about six in ten. Weslaco has the lowest share: half of its 10 agencies carry a star.

The rest of the Valley’s 122 agencies are in other cities. They count toward the Valley totals and averages above, but they aren’t in the city table.

What do the star ratings mean for an agency owner or buyer?

Our view: in this market, a high star rating sets an agency apart. With 71.6% of rated agencies at 2.5 stars or lower and only 7 at 4 stars or higher, an agency that climbs to 4 stars joins a small group. If you run an agency close to that line, we think the next quarterly release deserves a place on your calendar.

If you’re buying, look up the agency’s star rating before you talk price. The odds say a rated Valley agency sits at 2.5 stars or lower, and an agency with no rating gives you nothing to check against. In our view, a buyer should treat a low or missing rating as something to fix after the purchase and price it in.

If you’re choosing a city to open in or expand to, the averages point in two directions. Edinburg has 12 agencies and the lowest average at 1.56 stars, so we think a well run agency there would have fewer strong rated competitors. Harlingen has 10 agencies and averages 3.25 stars, so a newcomer there would be compared with the best rated group in the Valley. McAllen is the biggest market, with 37 agencies, and its 2.36 average sits close to the Valley’s 2.33.

New competition keeps arriving. In the 90 days to Oct 24, 2026, 56 new health businesses received a sales tax permit in the Valley. That count includes every kind of health business, so we read it as a general signal of new entrants in Valley health care. It doesn’t count home health agencies on their own.

What to watch

The star ratings update quarterly, so the next reading after Oct 21 should come early next year. When it does, we’ll watch three numbers:

• The count of rated agencies. If it rises above 74, more of the Valley’s 122 agencies can be compared on stars.
• The Valley average of 2.33, and whether the 7 agencies at 4 stars or higher grow in number.
• Edinburg’s 1.56 and Weslaco’s 2.4, because their small counts make them the most likely to move.

Each week, we’ll also track new health businesses with sales tax permits, which stood at 56 for the latest 90 days.

The weekly issue tracks these numbers every Sunday. Past issues are in the archive, and the latest readings are on the data page.