Colorado Medicaid Estate Recovery

HCPF describes its Colorado Medical Assistance Estate Recovery Program as a federally required piece of the system. After someone who received medical assistance dies, certain assets must go toward repaying HCPF for correctly paid Health First Colorado expenditures. State statute backs this with authority to recover from the estate of anyone who was 55 or older when they received assistance, and separately from the estate of an institutionalized individual, all subject to federal Medicaid law's limits.

HCPF's current fraud-prevention fact sheet clarifies that the agency recovers only the minimum amount federal law requires from deceased members' estates when the person was permanently institutionalized, or was 55 or older and received LTSS such as nursing-facility or waiver services. That distinction matters in practice: a home excluded from the eligibility decision while someone was alive can still become relevant to a completely separate claim filed against the estate after death.