COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — The Joint Budget Committee has approved a 56-hour per week cap on Medicaid compensation for parent caregivers in Colorado. The current cap is 112 hours per week.
From rallies outside the Capitol to conversations on the couch, News5 has been following these Medicaid cuts and speaking to the impacted parent caregivers. Parents tell me the decision feels defeating.
"We look out for each other. And even though Amy can't speak, I know Amy wants us to be healthy as a family and everybody to be good. I feel really sad that I'm trying to be a voice for her. I'm trying to advocate for her. Everything I do is for her. And I want her to continue to be at home with us," Susan Root said.
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"Realistically, we have to start, families have to start looking at what our next steps are going to be because we've been going over this for quite a while and it seems like we just keep going back to step one," said Root.
Parent caregiver Paisley Cawiezell says she is already planning ahead and looking into exceptions to the soft cap. Her six-year-old daughter, Marisela, is completely blind and has complex medical and developmental disabilities.
"Fight for that exception. Like if we want these hours, if you're working these hours and this is truly your life, then you need to start showing up and showing out and proving that," Cawiezell said.
The exception she is referring to comes from a document from the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing outlining the rules for these exceptions.
Exceptions will only be approved on a time-limited basis, with the expectation that providers are working to remedy the reason for the exception and identify alternative and additional caregivers to meet the members’ needs.
In the 100 page PDF it says one provider who works 80 hours or more a week, must submit their exception between June 1 to June 30, 2026. A singular parent caregiver who works between 63 and 79 hours a week has between July 1 and August 31, 2026. And 56 to 62 hours a week for one caregiver has to be submitted between September 1 and October 31, 2026.
However, there is a criteria single caregivers have to follow to be given an exception. In the document, it lists these criteria:
- alignment with the allowable reasons for an exception
- authorized hours of care
- current caregiver mix
- documentation of attempts to secure alternative caregivers
- documented plan for coming into compliance with the 56-hour requirement
But some parents tell News5 they are apprehensive about the exceptions.
"I don't believe there is any guarantees on the exception from what I understood reading everything myself is that it looks like the exceptions are going to be rare," Root said.
The Joint Budget Committee is still drafting a bill with these cuts, which then has to go through Colorado legislators.
"If I don't get the exception process my daughter's still gonna be taken care of by me that's just what it is it's gonna be harder," Cawiezell said.
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The 56 hour cap doesn't go into affect until the next fiscal year and it is a gradual decrease in hours beginning July 1. But Root tells News5 there is still uncertainty among families.
"We're getting like bits and pieces but not like a clear cut this is what's going to happen and this is how it's happening," Root said.
The 56-hour cap will officially be in place November 1.
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