---
title: "Colorado Long-Term Care Planning | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/colorado/long-term-care-planning/
description: "Colorado planning must account for the 300%-of-SSI income cap, four regional penalty rates, beneficiary-deed restriction, and estate recovery."
last_updated: 2026-10-20
author: George A. Mellendorf, CLTC, LTCP (Central States Insurance Services, Inc.)
publisher: Funding LTC Marketplace
note: Educational content; not legal, tax or financial advice. Markdown copy of the HTML page at the URL above.
---
Colorado · Planning Ahead

# Colorado Long-Term Care Planning

Last updated 2026-10-20

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.

## Colorado figures

- LTSS income cap (2026): $2,982/month
- Regional private-pay rate range (2026): $9,780.17 - $11,522.44/month

## Sources and official resources

- [Colorado HCPF: Long-Term Services and Supports](https://hcpf.colorado.gov/long-term-services-and-supports-programs)
- [CMS: 2026 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards](https://www.medicaid.gov/federal-policy-guidance/downloads/cib04272026.pdf)

Rules and figures change. Confirm current details with the agency before you act.

[← Back to the full Colorado guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/colorado/)