Joint Budget Committee announces 2% rate cut and caregiver soft cap

In its meeting on 03/31/26, Colorado's Joint Budget Committee announced the following measures impacting the home care industry to combat Medicaid spending growth and the impacts of HR 1:

1) Across-the-Board Reimbursement Rate Cut: (new)
A 2% across-the-board rate cut for all Medicaid providers, effective 7/1/2026. This is on top of the 1.6% take-back from October 2025.

2) Soft Cap on Caregiver Weekly Hours: (new)
A soft cap on caregiver maximum weekly hours of 84 hours starting 7/1/2026, dropping to 70 hours as of 01/01/2027 and finally reaching 56 hours per week (per Medicaid member) on 7/1/2027. There will be an exemption process defined for caregivers that require more hours.

3) Soft Caps on Services: 
The previously announced caps on Personal Care, Homemaker and Health Maintenance Activities (HMA) that will limit annual utilization to 19,000 units for HMA (about 13 hours per day), 10,000 units for Personal Care (about 6.8 hours per day) and 4,500 units for Homemaker (about 3 hours per day).

These changes will likely start go into effect 04/01/2026. Case management will have until 11/30/2026 to ensure that all PARs are within these limits. There will be an exception process for high acuity clients who have a demonstrated need for services above these caps. 

4) Legally Responsible Homemaker: As also previously announced, Legally Responsible Homemaker services will be reduced to a max of 7 hours per week (from 10 hours) per Medicaid client.

The above measures will undoubtedly present very significant challenges to clients, caregivers and providers alike. Alpine Homecare reiterates its commitment to the following:
- We will do our utmost to help and guide our clients and caregivers through the changes caused by these measures.
- We will be working with our clients and caregivers to minimize any negative impact from complying with these new service/caregiving restrictions.
- We will continue to advocate on behalf of our clients and caregivers.
- We will continue to provide the best service possible to our clients.
​Please contact Alpine at 303 309 6202 for additional information or any questions on this.