Colorado planning has to start from its income-cap structure. HCPF's 2026 figure sets that cap at $2,982 a month, and the state's income-trust instructions explain that someone above that number but below their region's nursing-facility private-pay rate may need an income trust to establish and maintain LTSS eligibility for institutional care, HCBS, or PACE. That's a meaningfully different fix than assuming an ordinary medical-expense spend-down will resolve every above-cap case.
The regional structure adds another planning layer families in single-rate states don't have to think about. HCPF publishes four separate 2026 nursing-facility private-pay rates, ranging from $9,780.17 to $11,522.44 a month, and its income-trust form ties the applicable ceiling to the region where the member actually lives and intends to stay. Those same regional rates feed into transfer-penalty math too — so a Colorado plan needs to nail down the person's actual county, not borrow a number from a neighboring state or a different Colorado region.