BrightStar Care: Reviews and Costs in 2025

BrightStar Care Pros and Cons

BrightStar Care Review

Background

Headquartered in Gurnee, Illinois, BrightStar Care serves patients through more than 400 locations. Providing both nonmedical and medical home care, BrightStar Care is equipped to care for patients of nearly any need. Their team of nurses, therapists, certified nursing assistants, and caregivers provides compassionate care at home or wherever a client may live.

Services

BrightStar Care offers a variety of in-home care services for seniors and individuals with disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, or dementia. Services include compassionate in-home care, such as medication management, personal care, companion care, and skilled nursing care.

• Personal care: BrightStar Care offers personal care assistance with tasks such as bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, feeding, and ambulation, allowing your loved one to live in their home safely and independently.
• Companion care: BrightStar Care offers companion care services to help seniors feel less isolated. Caregivers provide regular visits, sitter services, and other recreational activities, with the goal of focusing on the client’s well-being and improving their quality of life.
• 24-hour home services: BrightStar Care can provide peace of mind for people whose loved ones require 24-hour care and support in the home. Caregivers provide personal care, emotional care support, household care, and skilled nursing care day and night.
• Skilled nursing: Skilled care involves services such as helping with catheters, tending to wounds, or doing infusions. In contrast to personal care, skilled care is provided by licensed and registered nurses (an RN, LPN, or LVN).
• Memory care: BrightStar offers care for people with dementia and Alzeimer’s, helping with tasks of daily living, emotional support, and medication management.
• In-home therapies: Finally, in-home therapies include occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy.

Customer Experience

Each BrightStar Care location is independently owned and operated, so your experience may be different than ours. Here’s what we learned from our experience with the company:

• BrightStar Care generally costs $34 to $43 an hour for a home health aid, or anywhere from $90 to $150 per hour for skilled nursing care.
• As a company, BrightStar Care requires no minimum commitments for visit length or weekly hours; however, that might differ based on location, as some require three-hour minimums.
• To get your services started, BrightStar will do a free in-home assessment 24 to 48 hours before care begins.
• Getting started requires calling your nearest location and discussing the client’s care needs.

The reps from BrightStar Care proved to be highly knowledgeable and patient as they guided us through their service options. They were careful to differentiate between home care and home health care services, a key difference in terms of cost and insurance coverage.

Third-Party Reviews

When researching online reviews for BrightStar Care, it’s important to remember that they will vary based on each location because they’re owned and operated independently. Here's what we found when we took a look at the reviews for the company’s headquarters in Gurnee.

BrightStar Care’s Gurnee headquarters has 4.6 out of five stars on Google, and a two-star rating on Yelp. On Trustpilot, BrightStar Care has a 2.6 rating based on four reviews of the company at large. Let’s dive deeper into some individual reviews:

“BrightStar Care in Gurnee was certainly a STAR when we needed them.  The entire staff is wonderful. They came out to access our needs and listened to our requests in a professional manner the same day that we called them for help. Excellent care started the following day with well trained home health aides.  BrightStar  was accommodating when we requested the same aide, Marelyn,  on a daily basis.  She was such a wonderful person, aide, caregiver and we highly recommend her.  Other aides were also needed when we went to 24 hour care.  They were all excellent.  Shout out to Quiipo, Veronda, Nae Nae, Gabby, Suzette and Kiera.  They did their job with comfort and care.  We were in such wonderful hands during this difficult time and I highly recommend them for any home care needs.”- From a five-star review on Google from December, 2024.

“Our family has been using  BrightStar for several months caring for my mother. We started 3 days a week 6 hours a day, to 7 day a week, to 7day 24 hour care.

From the first meeting with Greg, and all the caregivers that helped not just my mom but our whole family through a difficult transition. Watching your parents become frail is not easy.

Two of our caregivers Leaha, and Katie have been  standouts. They treat our mom like she was their own mother. We consider both of them to be part of our family.”- From a three-star review on Google published in March, 2024.

“Do NOT use this company!!!! My mom used them for my 96 year old grandmother. They started off well, then it went to crap. First some of the staff was coming late then no- shows. Some were very incompetent. They did us a favor saying that they could no longer assist us due to scheduling! Please trust me when I say do not waste your time!”- From a one-star review on Yelp from May, 2024

Cost and Pricing

Because BrightStar Care is a franchise, prices will vary based on your location, the type of service you need, and the hours of service you need. In Pennsylvania, for example, you’ll find the following hourly rates for in-home caregivers:

• Three hours or fewer: $40
• Four to six hours: $36
• Seven to 24 hours: $34

The median cost of skilled nursing in Pennsylvania is $31, according to Genworth, making BrightStar more expensive than average. It costs even more if you need a skilled nurse, which starts at $100 to $105 an hour.

Outside of the Keystone State, our clients in Florida have paid between $36 and $38 an hour for home health aids, while the state’s average is $30 an hour. Nursing in Florida costs either $90 an hour for visits over two hours or a flat rate of $180 for visits under two hours. Clients in Arizona have paid $90 for two or fewer hours for a home health aid, $43 per hour for a three-hour shift, or $39 for a four-hour shift or longer, which is more than the $36-an-hour average rate statewide. Nursing is, of course, more expensive, at $150 an hour for periods of less than two hours, or $100 an hour for shifts of two hours or more.

No matter how you slice it, BrightStar’s pricing typically is higher than state averages. Call your nearest location to find current and accurate pricing.

Areas Served

Based in Gurnee, Illinois, BrightStar Care has more than 400 independently owned and operated franchise locations in 40 states nationwide. To find a location near you, call BrightStar at 866-618-7827, or enter your location on the company’s website.

You can find BrightStar Care locations in the following states:

Bottom Line

We recommend checking out the pricing and customer reviews for your nearest BrightStar Care location. Because each location is an independent franchise, care will differ from location to location, so we recommend calling and researching on your own.

To learn more about home care options and strategies for caring for your loved ones, check out our guides.

• Papa Pals Review
• CareLinx Review
• Aging in Place
• Guide to Respite Care
• How to Get Paid to Be a Caregiver
• Guide to Caregiver Burnout