If You’re A Colorado Parent Who Gets Paid To Care For Your Loved One…

Did Anyone Tell You Colorado’s CES Waiver Can Cover Extraordinary Cleaning, Massage Therapy, Movement (music) Therapy, Vehicle Modifications, And Adaptive Therapeutic Recreational Equipment?

Those are only a handful of the services buried inside Colorado’s waiver system. Navigating Disability Colorado (NDC) shows you what each of the 9 waivers covers, how to understand your budget and service plan, what to ask your case manager for, and what to do when the answer you get doesn’t sound right.

Keep reading- the full story matters ⬇

Dear exhausted parents and caregivers,

On January 1, 2027, Colorado’s paid-caregiver cap is scheduled to drop from 84 hours a week to 70.

But that’s only half the story…

The trouble is, caregiver pay is only one piece of a much bigger system.

Colorado has 9 different Medicaid waivers, each with its own services, budgets, rules, and requirements.

But having a waiver does not mean someone automatically tells you:

  • What should be in your loved one’s service plan.

  • Every benefit your loved one is eligible to receive.

  • Or whether your family is leaving respite, therapies, equipment, caregiver support, and other services on the table.

Yet it doesn’t have to be this way…

Norma, after about 9 months trying to get her daughter’s CES waiver, NDC taught her the specific verbiage to use and within 2 months the CES waiver was approved.

Melissa was paying for everything out of pocket with no disability services in place. Now her 19-year-old son has people helping him transition from high school into adult life.

Brianna’s family could barely cover their expenses and said the situation “wasn’t feasible.” After getting support, she described it as “a big light in our lives.”

Now, at this point, you may be thinking:

“But I already have a waiver and a case manager. Someone should be telling me this right?”

Wrong.

Colorado case managers can be responsible for 50 to 100 families at a time, and they are not there to teach you every service available through your waiver, walk you through every line of your budget, or alert you every time a rule changes.

Think having a case manager means someone will tell you everything your loved one may qualify for? 

I thought so too.

Then I discovered that while I was helping my own students get onto Social Security and Medicaid waivers, there had been a waiver available for my own son the entire time, and not one case manager, doctor, therapist, or professional around us had ever told me about it.

What Our Members Think

Without NDC’s program, we’d still be floundering and trying to figure out how to use our son’s services. The program enabled us to fully understand the very confusing way that services are procured, tracked, and delivered. I’m honestly not sure how people navigate the system without a program like this!
— SB, Lakewood, CO
Thank you for the information! I feel like a baby whose eyes are suddenly opening to a much greater world. You are a great teacher. I really appreciate all the little things you do!
— TG, Jefferson County, CO
I found it really helpful that the Maximize Your Waiver course in NDC’s program offers instruction both in how to better communicate with case managers, as well as in how the waiver and the system works. As a result, we’ve developed a better working relationship with our case manager and have secured service plan revisions. We are also now getting more services than we had been, after learning more about the waiver and what it has to offer.
— Teri, Arapahoe County, CO

I Cried After Spending Months Fighting To Get My Son’s Waiver… Now I Cry When Colorado Parents Say Their Family Member Is Getting The Services And Benefits They Deserve

Hi, I’m Maureen Welch.

Long before anyone called me the “Badass of Colorado’s Disability System,” I was a mom trying to figure out which waiver my son qualified for and what it could cover.”

But when James turned three, he aged out of early intervention.

But when James turned three, he aged out of early intervention.

Our family was over the income limit for the programs I knew about, and I had no idea what services came next.

So I went looking for answers myself.

I went back to school and earned my second master’s degree in Special Education, then began working with young adults with disabilities. My students were 18, 19, 20 years old, and part of my job became helping them prepare for adulthood.

But when I started James’ waiver process, I became furious.

I’d get one form, fill it out, send it back, then sometimes wait three weeks before the case manager sent me the next form. Then my case manager quit and I waited forever for a new one.

What should have taken two or three weeks stretched into roughly nine months.

I remember thinking: “It doesn’t have to be this hard. Nobody’s organized the information.”

I dug into the waiver rules, benefits, eligibility requirements, service plans, appeals, and funding.

I went to policy meetings, asked hard questions, and built relationships with agency leaders, advocates, and legislators so I could understand what was actually happening behind the letters, forms, and case-manager answers families were getting.

Then Colorado parents started coming to me with their own questions: “How do I apply?” “How much is in my loved one’s budget?” “What should I say to my case manager?”

I Helped Transform Those Questions Into Approval Letters, Revised Service Plans, And More Services For Their Kids

One parent learned her son’s CES budget “down to the penny,” how to access the resources available to him, and how the appeals process worked.

Teri, in Arapahoe County, learned how to communicate with her case manager, secured revisions to her service plan, and started receiving more services.

Another parent said she finally: “Forgave myself for not getting a CES waiver before now.”

Parents kept asking me for the same information I had spent years piecing together. So in 2021, I founded Navigating Disability Colorado to organize it and put it directly into the hands of Colorado families. Because I know what it feels like to discover that a service, benefit, waiver, or next step your loved one needed has been sitting inside this system all along…

Introducing Navigating Disability Colorado (NDC)

A Colorado-only membership for parents and caregivers who want to know what their loved one’s waiver can pay for, what belongs in the service plan, how the budget works, and what to ask when the answer they’re getting doesn’t make sense.

Finally, A Colorado Medicaid Waiver Resource That Shows You What Your Loved One Can Receive, What To Put In The Service Plan - Without Spending Months Digging Through Colorado Medicaid Rules

Unlike national disability websites, Facebook groups, or generic Medicaid resources, NDC is built around one system: Colorado’s 9 Medicaid waivers, their services, budgets, eligibility rules, case management process, and policy changes.

Let me be clear…I’m not a case manager or funded by the state. That matters because I can show you what Colorado’s rules say, what has changed, and what families need to look for without being limited to what one agency or case manager happens to explain.

But those rules move fast. Two Colorado waivers have merged in the last two years, and six HCPF operational memos replaced earlier memos in just eight months. So something you learned last year, or even a few months ago, may already be out of date.

That’s good news for you and your family.

Why? You do not need to learn all 9 waivers or spend your nights reading HCPF memos to figure out what applies to your family.

✔ If your loved one has CES, you can focus on CES.

✔ If you’re applying for CHRP, you can focus on CHRP.

✔ You can start using information inside NDC before your next conversation with your case manager.

✔ If you have a service-plan meeting, reassessment, funding request, or appeal coming up, you can go straight to the information you need for that next step.

But if you’re thinking: My  loved one has been on a  waiver for years. Surely I already know this stuff. But I am super confused” - Consider what NDC families have discovered after they were already inside the system…

“It’s unlikely I could have acquired such insider knowledge on my own.”

-Colorado Springs parent - Learned howe to find quality respite providers, communicate with her case manager, and handle grievance.

“NDC’s knowledge of local case management agencies helped her family with everything from the waiver application itself to maximizing funding requests.”

-Another parent

“Without what she learned through NDC, her daughter ‘wouldn’t have access to half the resources’

-Arapahoe County parent

That’s what I want for you.

Not another 60-page Medicaid document to decipher. The specific Colorado information you need to know what your loved one may be able to receive and what to do next.

Here’s What You Get Inside Navigating Disability Colorado

NDC was built so you don’t have to spend the next three years piecing together answers from HCPF documents, Facebook groups, county offices, case managers, providers, and other parents who are just as confused as you are. Instead, you can go straight to the part of Colorado’s Medicaid waiver system that affects your loved one, your waiver, your service plan, your budget, and your next decision.

And You’re Joining Hundreds Of Colorado Families

525

Members in the community

117

Enrolled in Apply for a Waiver

118

Enrolled in Maximize Your Existing Waiver

That includes families applying for their first waiver, families maximizing an existing waiver, parents preparing for adult services, paid family caregivers, and people who have been navigating disability services for years and are still discovering things they were never told.

“I always learn something I can use almost immediately.”

“Thank you for doing this rounding up of all the info in one place.”

“Constant new requirements, changing where things are, and how things need to be documented. Argh.”

That Last one is exactly why NDC exists.

Navigating Disability Colorado Is For You If…

You’re a Colorado parent or caregiver and any of these sound familiar:

  • You have tried to apply once or maybe more than once and it is just too hard.

  • Your loved one already has a waiver, but you still aren’t sure whether you’re using everything it can provide.

  • You get paid to care for your loved one and want to understand what else can support your family as caregiver-hour limits change.

  • You’re applying for a waiver and don’t want the process to drag on because a form, assessment, ICD code, or document was missing.

  • You keep hearing CES, CHRP, DD, SLS, CFC, IHSS, CDASS, PASA, PMIP, LOC 100.2 and would like somebody to explain what actually matters for your family.

  • Your case manager gave you an answer that doesn’t sound right, and you want to know what to look up before accepting it.

  • Your loved one has services but you have no idea how much money is actually available in the budget.

  • You want to build your loved one’s service plan before the case manager builds it for you.

  • You were denied a service and want to understand appeals, grievances, exceptions, and escalation.

  • You need respite but every agency you call says they don’t have staff.

  • You’re trying to choose between CDASS and IHSS.

  • You want to understand whether a service belongs under the waiver, Community First Choice, or state-plan Medicaid.

  • Your loved one is approaching 18 or transitioning from a children’s waiver into adult services.

  • You live outside Denver and are tired of Colorado disability information assuming every family can drive across the Front Range for help.

  • You’ve spent months inside Facebook groups and still find yourself saying: “I’m unsure what to do now.”

  • You’ve been navigating this system for years and still suspect there are services, funding, or options your family has never been told about.

Navigating Disability Colorado Is NOT For You If…

NDC isn’t the right fit if:

  • You do not live in Colorado. This membership is built specifically around Colorado Medicaid, Colorado’s 9 HCBS waivers, Colorado case management, HCPF rules, Colorado providers, and Colorado policy changes.

  • You’re looking for legal representation or want me to act as your attorney.

  • You expect somebody to take over your case completely while you remain uninvolved.

  • You want a guaranteed waiver approval regardless of your family member’s eligibility.

  • You’re unwilling to gather documentation, ask questions, follow up, or participate in your loved one’s service planning.

  • You only want broad national disability information you could find with a basic Google search.

  • You’re looking for a case manager employed by the state or your local agency.

  • Not willing to do the videos and show up for office hours.

But If You Want To Know What Colorado’s Rules Actually Say, What Your Loved One May Be Able To Receive, And What To Ask For Before Your Next Meeting…You’re  who I built NDC for.

You could read HCPF memos ever time Colorado changes a rule. Dig though rate sheets. Build your own service-plan spreadsheet. Hunt down the right forms. Learn the difference between IHSS and CDASS. Research PASA complaints. Figure out who sits above your case manager when an email goes unanswered. And hope the information you found six months ago is still accurate.

You Could Spend Months Trying To Piece This Together Yourself…

Or you can use the work I’ve already spent years organizing for Colorado families.

PREVIOUSLY SOLD SEPARATELY

Apply for a Medicaid Waiver PLUS - $1,299

Maximize Your Existing Medicaid Waiver - $499

Combined Value - $1,798

  • 124 lessons and nearly 19 hours of training

  • 87 timed videos covering all 9 waiver rate schedules

  • Apply for a Medicaid Waiver PLUS (previously $1,299)

  • Maximize Your Existing Medicaid Waiver (previously $499)]

  • Service Plan Grid, ICD- code tip sheet, Letters of Medical Necessity

  • Children’s & adult waiver comparison + flow charts

  • Monthly live Office Hours with Maureen

  • The respite-bench recruitment system

  • Ongoing Colorado policy & HCPF memo updates

  • The NDC Circle Community

TODAY’S OFFER

Join Navigating Disability Colorado

$49/ month

Instead of $1,798 - and instead of getting help with one question on one afternoon, you can keep coming back as your loved one’s waiver, service plan, providers, assessment, caregiver hours, and Colorado’s rule change.

30-day refund policy - cancel anytime

Think about what one missed service can be worth to your family. One revised service plan. One additional respite provider. One funding request you now know how to make it. One answer you know to challenge instead of accepting. One benefit your loved one could have been receiving for the next year.

And If You’re Worried Your loved one May Not Even Qualify…

I understand.

The last thing I want is for you to pay me to learn how to apply for a waiver only to discover that your family member was never eligible in the first place.

So I’m keeping the same promise I’ve already made to families in my waiver program:

The NDC Eligibility Guarantee

If your family member isn’t eligible or doesn’t qualify, I’ll refund your money.

  • Without trying to convince me you watched enough lessons.

  • Without trying to convince me you watched enough lessons.

  • Without arguing with me about whether you “worked hard enough.”

  • Without a long list of hoops you need to jump through before you can ask for your money back.

If you go through the process and discover your family member does not qualify, contact us and we’ll take care of it.

If you’re happy piecing together Colorado Medicaid answers from case managers, government PDFs, Facebook comments, provider agencies, and whatever happens to come up on Google…

NDC probably isn’t necessary for you.

But if you want one Colorado-specific place you can return to when you need to know:

  • Which waiver fits your loved one.

  • What that waiver can pay for.

  • What belongs in the service plan.

  • How to prepare for the 100.2 assessment, PMIP, disability determination, or waiver application.

  • How much different services are currently reimbursed for.

  • What to ask before a case-manager meeting.

  • How to escalate when emails stop getting answered.

  • What to do when a service gets denied.

  • How to find and vet respite workers, PASAs, and other providers.

  • And what changed when Colorado updates the rules again.

Then I’d love to welcome you inside Navigating Disability Colorado.

Questions You May Still Have