In November 2025, the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) released a critical memo regarding the future of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) in Colorado.
To ensure the sustainability of the Medicaid program, the state is implementing Annual Service Unit Limits (“Soft Caps”) starting in Spring 2026.
At Caregivers First Choice, we believe in radical transparency. Here is what the changes mean, and why our agency model is uniquely built to help your family thrive despite them.
The New Limits
HCPF is moving away from unlimited authorizations toward “typical usage” caps to prevent over-billing. The proposed annual limits are:
- Personal Care: 10,000 units/year (~6.5 hours/day)
- Homemaker: 4,500 units/year (~3 hours/day)
- Health Maintenance (HMA): 19,000 units/year (~13 hours/day)
(Note: An exceptions process will exist for members with documented complex needs).
What This Means for Families
For years, some agencies have relied on a “quantity over quality” model—authorizing massive blocks of hours at low wages. That model is breaking.
With these new caps, the Volume Game is over. If the state limits the number of hours you can work, the value of every single hour becomes critical.
The Math is Simple: If you are capped at 6 hours of Personal Care a day:
- At a traditional agency ($18/hr), you earn $108/day.
- At Caregivers First Choice ($22/hr+), you earn $132/day.
Over a month, that is a $700+ difference for the exact same capped hours.
Why We Are Prepared
We saw this coming. We built Caregivers First Choice with a low-overhead structure specifically designed to maximize the pass-through rate to the caregiver.
We don’t need you to bill 16 hours a day to cover our corporate rent. We need you to provide quality care for the hours you do have, and we pay you a premium for it.
As the state focuses on sustainability, make sure your agency is focused on you.
Worried about how these caps affect your income? Use our calculator to see how a higher hourly rate can offset the new limits.
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