{"id":1270,"date":"2026-06-05T15:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1270"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:04:21","slug":"colorado-still-trying-to-figure-out-medicaid-work-requirements-as-clock-ticks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1270","title":{"rendered":"Colorado still trying to figure out Medicaid work requirements as clock ticks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Colorado\u2019s Medicaid agency is still trying to sort out who may be exempt from looming federal work requirements that apply to nearly 400,000 people in the state \u2014 and how to prove it.<\/p>\n

Read more Can you grow a lemon tree in low-humidity Colorado? The answer might surprise you.<\/a><\/p>\n

Under H.R. 1, last summer\u2019s Republican legislation known as the \u201cbig beautiful bill,\u201d people between 19 and 64 who qualified because of their low incomes in states that expanded Medicaid will have to meet work requirements starting in January.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing estimated about 378,000 people fall into that category, meaning they will have to spend at least 80 hours a month working, volunteering or attending school, or prove that they qualify for an exemption.<\/p>\n

The department has a tool for people to figure out if the work requirements apply to them, but it doesn\u2019t include detailed information about who qualifies for an exemption based on their medical condition.<\/p>\n

The and various nonprofits attempted to calculate how many people could lose Medicaid coverage because of work requirements, coming up with estimates from 3 million to 7 million nationwide.<\/p>\n

H.R. 1 exempted people who are \u201cmedically frail,\u201d but didn\u2019t fully define what that meant. Some states interpreted the term as referring to people whose health would worsen if they lost health insurance, which could cover a broad swath of the population that has chronic conditions. Colorado hadn\u2019t released information about how it intends to define medical frailty.<\/p>\n

A nearly 400-page rule that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released Monday ended that approach.<\/p>\n

The federal agency defines medical frailty as an inability to meet the work requirement, and forbids states from adopting more expansive definitions. Among other things, that means states can\u2019t exempt an entire group of people with a certain diagnosis, such as everyone with cancer or Parkinson\u2019s disease, according to an analysis from the health policy nonprofit KFF.<\/p>\n

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The law also exempts recipients who are pregnant, raising a child younger than 14 or acting as a caregiver for a family member. CMS hasn\u2019t specified how states should determine who qualifies as a caregiver.<\/p>\n

Colorado, like other states, started preparing for work requirements shortly after H.R. 1 passed last July, said Adela Flores-Brennan, Medicaid director at the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.<\/p>\n

States had to make assumptions about what the federal government wanted while waiting for guidance, and some of those assumptions likely will prove wrong, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still going through (the rule) and trying to understand the implications,\u201d she said during a webinar Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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While Medicaid can see existing members\u2019 medical records, health care providers typically don\u2019t issue an opinion on whether someone can work, and the answer can depend on a person\u2019s skills.<\/p>\n

For example, a lifelong manual laborer who now needs to use a wheelchair would have a significantly harder time finding a new job than an office worker with the same mobility limitations \u2014 a discrepancy reflected in Social Security\u2019s policy of considering a person\u2019s work history and jobs available in their community when making decisions about disability income.<\/p>\n

Read more Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods to open first Colorado \u2018House of Sport\u2019 in Thornton<\/a><\/p>\n

Department of Health Care Policy and Financing staff are still reading the CMS rule and figuring out how they would verify someone\u2019s ability to work, spokesman Marc Williams said.<\/p>\n

They should be able to confirm whether someone is a caregiver if they live in the same house as a person who has a disability on record with Medicaid, though the process could be more challenging if the caregiver and recipient live apart, he said.<\/p>\n

The state will use existing data about income from federal sources, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and the credit rating bureau Equifax to verify people\u2019s compliance when possible, Williams said.<\/p>\n

It also has access to information people reported for food and cash assistance, and is working to connect with a clearinghouse that has records of students enrolled at accredited colleges, he said.<\/p>\n

Colorado is going to presume that people earning at least $580 a month have met the work requirement, said Marivel Klueckman, the department\u2019s eligibility division director. They are still waiting for guidance on how to prove volunteer hours, she said.<\/p>\n

As of 2023, about 64% of adults under 65 who were enrolled in Medicaid said they worked at least part-time. Another 29% might be eligible for exemptions, because they said they weren\u2019t working due to caregiving responsibilities, a disability or school attendance.<\/p>\n

Studies of Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas found about 18,000 people lost coverage, mostly because they didn\u2019t understand the rules, and employment didn\u2019t increase. Research on work requirements for Medicaid in Georgia and food assistance in West Virginia also didn\u2019t find an increase in employment.<\/p>\n

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said at a news conference Tuesday that the work requirements would push people to fulfill their purpose in life, while protecting the program from fraud and preserving it for those with the greatest needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you share this belief that we\u2019re put on this Earth with agency to change our future, change the country\u2019s future and make the planet a better place,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re put here to make a difference, but if you\u2019re sitting at home, which is true for the millions of people who are able-bodied on Medicaid, on average, you\u2019re spending 6.1 hours watching television or just hanging around. That\u2019s not why you\u2019re here. So Congress very wisely said, \u2018Let\u2019s get you back into the workforce.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Easterseals, a nonprofit working with people with disabilities, released a statement raising concerns about the rule and taking issue with the philosophy underlying work requirements. Having health care opens the door to getting a job, not the other way around, President and CEO Kendra Davenport said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese work requirements are a penalty for losing a job, missing a piece of mail or a procedural error \u2014 they just cause eligible people to lose the coverage they depend on,\u201d she said in a news release. \u201cThat means children and adults with disabilities, older adults, veterans and the family members holding it all together \u2014 along with the direct care workers whose jobs exist because Medicaid pays for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get health news sent straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more New Colorado laws require health inspections of ICE facilities, aim to reduce cost of homeowners insurance<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado started preparing for work requirements shortly after H.R. 1 passed last July. States had to make assumptions about what the federal government wanted while waiting for guidance, and some of them likely will prove wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nColorado still trying to figure out Medicaid work requirements as clock ticks - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1270\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colorado still trying to figure out Medicaid work requirements as clock ticks - Colorado Springs Moverss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Colorado started preparing for work requirements shortly after H.R. 1 passed last July. 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