Understanding Colorado’s 2025 Medicaid Changes (And What They Mean for You)
When a policy shift slips in while you’re juggling school meetings, therapy appointments, and caregiver shifts, it often barely makes a ripple. But in 2025, Colorado Medicaid dropped a wave: the launch of Community First Choice (CFC), the return of Prior Authorization Requests (PAR), and more systemic shifts that could impact how your loved one receives support.
This is where Navigating Disabilities Colorado (NDC) steps in, turning complexity into clarity, one policy at a time.
Community First Choice: What’s Changing in 2025
Colorado’s new Community First Choice (CFC) program officially rolls out on July 1, 2025. This state plan benefit will move several in-home support services out of waivers and into the Medicaid State Plan.
What moves under CFC:
Personal care
Homemaker services
Health maintenance activities
Home-delivered meals, assistive tech, and remote monitoring
If you’re on a waiver now, CFC won’t impact you until your next Continued Stay Review (CSR) in 2025 or 2026. After that, your services may shift to billing through the state plan, not your waiver.
Why it matters: your caregiver pay, tax status, and agency access could change, and if you don’t plan for it, services may be delayed or disrupted.
Prior Authorization Requests (PAR) Return
In 2025, Colorado Medicaid will also reactivate PARs for services that were temporarily exempt due to COVID-era flexibility.
This means you’ll need official pre-approval for services like:
Speech, occupational, and physical therapy
Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) services
Some home health and behavioral supports
If your provider doesn’t file the PAR correctly, or on time, you may experience sudden service pauses.
That’s why at NDC, we help families track their services, understand which ones need PARs, and know how to follow up with case managers or agencies. I also break this down in our live info sessions and inside the Roadmap for the Waiver Journey.
What You Should Do Right Now
Check when your CSR is due to see when CFC may affect your plan.
Ask your provider if your services need a new PAR, and when to expect it.
Join the NDC Community for real-time updates, guides, and personalized breakdowns of state memos like HCPF OM 25-030.
Real Story, Real Impact
One family I worked with nearly lost their in-home CNA support when the provider missed the new PAR deadline. The caregiver hours were paused for two weeks, and no one called to warn them.
We stepped in, clarified their status, got a rush CSR scheduled, and transitioned them correctly. But that gap? It never should have happened.
This is why policy awareness isn’t optional, it’s survival.
Your Next Move
Let’s make sure your services aren’t quietly interrupted by 2025 changes.
✅ Join our next Info Session
✅ Visit our Resources Page for policy summaries, checklists, and caregiver pay insights
✅ Comment WAIVER and I’ll personally send you our 2025 Medicaid Change Checklist
You don’t have to wait until services fall apart to get ahead. With NDC, you’ll know what’s coming, before it hits.