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, which include cooking and cleaning, will save Medicaid $2.6 million state funds.

The community connector program in particular has ballooned — the cost of the program jumped by 1,178% since 2018, to about $67 million per year from about $5 million per year. 

Part of the growth is because people are using it incorrectly, Medicaid officials said. 

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