Glossary

Short definitions in the language families actually use, with the official terms explained rather than used as headlines.

Group home

Everyday language for a shared residence where people with disabilities live with staff support. In Texas it is not one license type; it may be an ICF/IID home, an HCS residence, or another setting.

ICF/IID

Intermediate care facility for individuals with an intellectual disability or a related condition. A 24-hour residential program. This directory lists Texas facilities in HHSC’s public ICF/IID file, including community homes and State Supported Living Centers.

Community ICF/IID home

A community-based intermediate care facility, often a six-bed house, as distinct from a large State Supported Living Center campus.

State Supported Living Center (SSLC)

One of 13 large, campus-based intermediate care facilities operated by Texas HHSC. These are institutional campuses, not small neighborhood group homes. See HHSC’s SSLC page.

HCS

Home and Community-based Services, a Texas Medicaid waiver. It can support a person in a family home, their own home, a host home, or a residence with no more than four people who also receive HCS services. There is no public statewide HCS provider roster on this site.

TxHmL / Texas Home Living

A Texas Medicaid waiver that helps people with IDD who live with family or in their own homes, with limits on what the program pays. Also often uses an interest list.

LIDDA

Local intellectual and developmental disability authority. The front door for publicly funded IDD services in a Texas county, including intake, eligibility, ICF/IID enrollment, and HCS/TxHmL interest lists. Some still use an older MHMR name.

MHMR

An older name still used by some local centers (for example in Tarrant or Denton). Useful as a search synonym for a LIDDA, not as a current statewide brand.

Interest list

A waiting record for certain programs when demand is higher than funding. For HCS and TxHmL, the LIDDA adds a request; HHSC generally offers services to the person who has been on the list the longest.

Host home / companion care

An HCS setting in which a person lives in a home with a host or companion, rather than in a small staffed group home.

Supported living

A loose phrase for living in a person’s own home or apartment with supports. In Texas, confirm which program would pay for those supports.

TULIP

HHSC’s online long-term care provider search, including inspections for many facility types. We link out; we do not scrape it.

IDD

Intellectual and developmental disabilities. We use the full phrase in ordinary sentences and use the abbreviation only after it has been explained.

IDD Ombudsman

An HHSC office that can help with questions or complaints about HCS, TxHmL, or local authority services. 800-252-8154.

Texas Abuse Hotline

The number to report abuse, neglect, or exploitation: 800-252-5400.

Waiver

A Medicaid program that pays for community services that would otherwise be hard to get outside an institution. HCS and TxHmL are examples. A waiver is not automatically approved just because a name is on an interest list.