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Colorado’s Medicaid debate: Should lawmakers fix spending before seeking more federal dollars?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s Medicaid debate: Should lawmakers fix spending before seeking more federal dollars?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Drawing down more Federal money as the solution to Colorado’s Medicaid problem? Have you ever heard the saying, “the first step is admitting you have a problem”? Nash Herman’s piece on the Colorado Medicaid Commission (linked first below) made me think of that. The reason being that, per what he writes about their first meeting, the commission seems to largely be focused on wringing more money out of the Feds than dealing with the bloat that Colorado lawmakers have heaped upon the program since 2014 and Obamacare. Quoting from the piece with embedded links left intact: “The most recent Commission meeting raised questions about the government’s priorities in addressing Medicaid and the state budget. A re...
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Who’s guiding Colorado’s Medicaid Commission? A closer look at the panel shaping future policy
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Who’s guiding Colorado’s Medicaid Commission? A closer look at the panel shaping future policy

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Meet the Medicaid Commission and their newly-hired advisor. Medicaid is a big line item in the state’s budget. It’s gotten so big, and eaten up so much of our state’s money, that our legislature has gathered up a commission. SB26-187 (linked first below) creates a (quoting from the bill summary): “… commission on Medicaid (commission) to develop recommendations regarding implementation of new federal Medicaid policy changes that go into effect in 2026, 2027, and 2028 and to support Coloradans impacted by those policy changes.” This commission will meet a few times and prepare a report to be used by the legislature in the 2027 session. Quoting from the bill’s fiscal note: “Between May 13, 2026, and December...
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Colorado Probes Claims of Cash Incentives Linked to Medicaid Services for Homeless Residents
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Colorado Probes Claims of Cash Incentives Linked to Medicaid Services for Homeless Residents

By: David Migoya | Colorado Politics Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series. Read about how home health in Colorado is a complex setupand about the group On Going HHC. They call it “the program.” For the past four years, dozens of homeless people in the Denver metro area have been recruited to live rent-free in suburban houses sprinkled across Aurora — not the stereotypical homeless shelter-type housing one might think, but rather neat homes in middle-class communities with mortgages. But living there comes with a hitch: a requirement that participants be on Medicaid and have at least one prescribed medication — all must first visit the same doctor to get a cursory exam and a prescription — administered by a home health company for which the doctor ...
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Colorado saw red flags in autism therapy billing and approved higher rates anyway
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado saw red flags in autism therapy billing and approved higher rates anyway

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Federal auditors documented convicted staff working with autistic children. Colorado had no system to catch it. Every week, parents of autistic children in Colorado dropped their kids off with behavior therapists they trusted. What they didn't know—what the state never required anyone to verify—was whether those therapists had passed a background check. Many hadn't. Not because anyone failed a background check. Because Colorado never required one. HHS Office of Inspector General audit highlights—February 2026. Source: https://oig.hhs.gov/documents/audit/11494/A-09-24-02004-highlights.pdf The findings from federal auditors came out in February. At least $77.8 million in improper Medicaid payments for autism therapy in 20...
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From $8 Billion to $16 Billion: How Colorado’s Medicaid Budget Doubled in a Decade
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

From $8 Billion to $16 Billion: How Colorado’s Medicaid Budget Doubled in a Decade

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice If you ask most Colorado families how they feel about health care right now, the answers aren’t complicated. It’s expensive.It’s confusing.It keeps going up. And for taxpayers helping fund Colorado’s Medicaid program — known as Health First Colorado — another question has started to surface: If enrollment has come back down, why hasn’t spending followed? Ten years ago, Colorado’s Medicaid agency operated on roughly $8 billion. Today it’s closer to $16 billion. The Common Sense Institute (CSI) calculates that as 101 percent growth over the decade. CSI reports that the rest of the state operating budget grew 64 percent during that same period. The story of enrollment is different. ...
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Federal Reimbursement Model of ‘Perverse Incentives’ Fuels Colorado Medicaid Expansion
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Federal Reimbursement Model of ‘Perverse Incentives’ Fuels Colorado Medicaid Expansion

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Colorado’s ongoing budget-gap struggles are the predictable result of structural problems with Medicaid.  Paragon Health Institute, a non-partisan research institute, recently published a new report, Preserve and Improve Medicaid, which explains the program’s inherent challenges and how states such as Colorado can take advantage of One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) reforms to improve outcomes.  However, it remains ultimately up to Colorado legislators to address the program’s systemic issues.  Medicaid’s ‘perverse incentives’ As economist Linda Gorman recently explained, the rapid 2010 expansion of Medicaid did not produce large gains in physical health, suggesting that the new expansion ...
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Colorado Lawmakers Face Tough Choices As Medicaid Drives Increased Spending
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Face Tough Choices As Medicaid Drives Increased Spending

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics This week, the state Senate is reviewing revisions to the 2025–26 state budget, which has been reduced by hundreds of millions of dollars in each round of cuts. But the bottom line is that, because of Medicaid costs, the state will spend more in 2025-26 than lawmakers approved in the 2025 session. Last week, the 29 bills in the supplemental package were approved by the House, with most passing with broad support. That didn’t mean all of them did: bills changing the budgets for the departments of state, treasury, health care policy and financing, personnel, public health and environment and higher ed all passed largely along party lines. A supplemental for the Department of Corrections, which increased its budget by $29...
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Budget Crunch Drives Colorado Medicaid Board To Approve New Caps On Disability Services
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Budget Crunch Drives Colorado Medicaid Board To Approve New Caps On Disability Services

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun Medicaid benefits that pay for people with disabilities to go on community outings and cover household cleaning, cooking and laundry are the latest services facing cuts as Colorado deals with a major budget shortage.  A governor-appointed board that sets rules for the state Medicaid program voted 6-1 Friday to preliminarily approve the cuts, despite rejecting other cuts requested by Medicaid officials this year.  The federal-state health insurance program will save $1.2 million in state money this year and $10 million next year by placing stricter caps on the number of hours that caregivers are paid to take people on outings through a benefit called “community connector.” Capping the hours allowed for “homemaker” services,...
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Federal Government Requires Colorado to Share Medicaid Data With Homeland Security
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Colorado Public Radio, Approved, State

Federal Government Requires Colorado to Share Medicaid Data With Homeland Security

By Bente Birkeland and John Daley | Colorado Public Radio In January, the state’s flagship safety net hospital, Denver Health, distributed a one-page notice about patient privacy that carried groundshaking implications, especially for Colorado’s immigrant population. The notice stated that due to federal changes within Medicaid, the federal-state program for hundreds of thousands of low-income and disabled Americans, “limited” personal information could be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Denver Health said the information applied only to people who are not lawfully residing in the U.S and are enrolled in a program called Emergency Medicaid or pregnant and enrolled in Medicaid through Cover All Coloradans. But if a person is in one of those groups,...
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Colorado Budget Panel Halts Proposed Medicaid Pay Reductions for Family Caregivers
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Budget Panel Halts Proposed Medicaid Pay Reductions for Family Caregivers

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics The Colorado General Assembly’s budget decision-makers have put proposed pay cuts on hold for people who care for a family member with a disability who receives Medicaid. The Joint Budget Committee made the decision after hours of testimony from family caregivers and several advocates. The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing has been struggling to manage a substantial spike in Medicaid spending, which accounts for about one-third of the state’s budget, even as Colorado faces a $1 billion budget deficit. Members of the JBC earlier expressed concerns with Gov. Jared Polis’ proposal last November on how to plug that deficit, which included a plan to fund Medicaid below its projected growth. “This isn’t a tr...
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