Colorado’s Caregiver Hour Cap Starts July 1: What Families Can Do Now

If you're a family caregiver in Colorado being paid through Medicaid, a change is landing on July 1, 2026 that you'll want to get ahead of.

The state is capping how many hours a single caregiver can be paid to provide to one person each week. It starts at 84 hours a week this July, drops to 70 in January 2027, and reaches its final number of 56 hours a week on July 1, 2027.

First, the reassurance: this is not a cut to the member's authorized service hours. Those stay exactly as they are. What changes is that any hours above the cap have to be provided by more than one caregiver.

But let's be straight about who this lands on. For a parent or spouse who is the paid caregiver, often the breadwinner, a weekly cap can mean a real cut to household income. That's the part the official memos gloss over, and we won't.

There's an exception process for families who qualify: extraordinary clinical needs, workforce shortages, care transitions, and end-of-life circumstances. And here's something most families don't realize: the cap is per member, not a ceiling on you. A caregiver can still be paid up to the limit for each person they serve.

The catch is who files it. Under the rule, you can't submit the exception yourself. Your provider agency does (or, in CDASS, the employer of record). Your case manager reviews it, and HCPF makes the final call. So the real question isn't only "do I qualify?" It's "will my agency actually do this work for me?"

What to do now

• Check the threshold. Find out whether your caregiver is over the cap for your phase. If they're providing more than 84 hours a week to one person, your first submission window is July 1 to 31, 2026.
  
• Know your deadline. If you miss your window, hours over the cap may not be covered until a new request is approved, so timing matters.
  
• Pick an agency that does the work. You want a provider that prepares and submits these requests, coordinates with your case manager, and helps you rebuild hours if an exception isn't available.

We put together a full, plain-language walkthrough of the whole thing, with the criteria, the documentation, the deadlines, and a step-by-step flowchart, so you can see exactly what's involved. 

At Caregivers First Choice, this is the red tape we handle so you can keep your focus on the care. We can't promise how HCPF will rule (no one can), but we can promise we'll do the work and show you our work.

If you want help, reach out or call/text us at: (303) 800-7081.