A renewal you never return can end your Health First Colorado (Colorado Medicaid) coverage even if you still qualify. Federal law requires the state to try to renew you automatically from data it already holds before it asks you for anything, but when a packet does reach you, it has to come back on time. This guide explains how the Colorado Medicaid renewal and recertification cycle works in 2026, what to do when your packet arrives, and the 90-day window to recover if you miss the deadline.

Renew online at Colorado PEAK or call the Member Contact Center at 1-800-221-3943.

In This Guide

Recertification is where a case can close even when the person still qualifies. Colorado Medicaid renewal (the annual redetermination) confirms you still meet the rules set at your initial application; under 42 CFR 435.916 it is redetermined at least annually after that.

For the broader picture, start at Brevy's Colorado Medicaid hub or the national Medicaid renewals by state directory.

The Colorado Medicaid recertification and renewal cycle

Under 42 CFR 435.916, the state must redetermine eligibility at least every 12 months, a minimum rather than a ceiling: for coverage based on age, blindness, disability, or long-term care it may redetermine more often. Your renewal month is set when you are first approved and stays the same each year, so an October approval renews every October. County human services offices do the eligibility casework under HCPF, and each renewal follows one of two paths.

  • MAGI populations (children, pregnant women, parents and caretaker relatives, and expansion adults) are renewed using Modified Adjusted Gross Income methodology, which has no asset test. In Colorado these groups qualify against percentages of the Federal Poverty Level: children through age 18 at 142% FPL, pregnant women at 195% FPL, parents and caretaker relatives at 68% FPL, and expansion adults at an effective 138% FPL.
  • Non-MAGI populations (aged, blind, and disabled members, long-term-care and waiver participants, and Medicare Savings Program enrollees) are renewed under rules that include an asset test. Federal law requires the state to verify assets at every renewal through an Asset Verification System (Section 1940 of the Social Security Act), so these renewals clear automatically far less often and usually require bank statements and a signed authorization.

Ex parte Colorado Medicaid renewal: the federal mandate

The ex parte default in 42 CFR 435.916 comes first. Before the state asks you for anything, it must try to redetermine your eligibility using reliable information already in your account or available through electronic data sources. Only when it cannot renew you on that basis may it request information from you.

Those electronic sources, named at 42 CFR 435.948, 435.949, and 435.956, include Social Security Administration earnings and benefit records, tax and wage data, and records from other programs the state runs. If the data confirm you remain within the income limit for your category and nothing else has changed, the renewal processes automatically and you get a notice stating that coverage continues for another 12 months and no action is required.

When ex parte fails, the state must send a renewal form with the information it already has and give you at least 30 days from the date on that form to respond, add anything missing, and sign it. Under 42 CFR 435.916(a)(3) that is a federal requirement if your eligibility is based on modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). For the non-MAGI groups (age 65 or older, blindness or disability, long-term care, a Medicare Savings Program, or the medically needy pathway), Colorado may follow the same procedure but is not required to, so go by the deadline on your notice. Ex parte tends to fail when income never appears in wage databases (self-employment, gig, or cash income), when an aged, blind, and disabled asset check has to be run by hand, or when the household changes.

How to renew Health First Colorado: Colorado Medicaid renewal channels

Under 42 CFR 435.916, you may submit a renewal through any way the agency accepts applications, and it may not require an in-person interview to renew. In Colorado the fastest channel is online through Colorado PEAK.

Channel How Notes
Online Colorado PEAK (peak.my.site.com) or the Health First Colorado mobile app Fastest, upload documents, check status, recommended
Phone Member Contact Center, 1-800-221-3943 (State Relay 711) Ask questions, request a packet, update your address
In person or mail Your county human services office Renew, drop off documents, or get help completing the form

Colorado PEAK (Program Eligibility and Application Kit) is the state's online benefits portal. If you set up an account at your initial application, use it; otherwise create one with your name, date of birth, and the case or member ID from any notice.

The 90-day Colorado Medicaid reconsideration window

If your coverage closed because you missed the renewal paperwork, you may not have to start over.

Under 42 CFR 435.916, if you lose coverage for failure to return the renewal form or requested information (a procedural termination, not an eligibility-based one), the agency must reconsider your eligibility and treat the late-returned form as the renewal if you submit it within 90 days of the termination, without requiring a new application. That duty covers eligibility based on modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). For non-MAGI groups, Colorado may offer the same window but is not required to, so ask HCPF. So if your case closed June 30, you have until roughly September 28 to submit the form. The federal rule guarantees reconsideration, not that restored coverage reaches back to your closure date. Ask HCPF or your county office how it treats that gap.

The 90-day clock starts on the termination date, not the notice date. Read your closure notice carefully.

To activate reconsideration, submit the renewal form through PEAK, your county office, or by phone. If you no longer have it, call the Member Contact Center at 1-800-221-3943 or use PEAK to request a new one, and note the closure date.

Children and pregnant women: continuous coverage

Federal law protects two groups from mid-year income changes at renewal.

Children under 19. Section 5112 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 requires every state to give children under 19 enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (in Colorado, Child Health Plan Plus, or CHP+) 12 months of continuous eligibility from enrollment, effective January 1, 2024. Coverage is locked in for those 12 months regardless of a rise in family income. If a parent loses Medicaid mid-year because income went up, the children keep coverage until their next annual renewal (exceptions: aging out at 19, moving out of Colorado, death, voluntary disenrollment, and fraud). So if your income rises, report it: accurate reporting protects you from fraud allegations.

Pregnant and postpartum members. Federal law gives states a permanent option to extend Medicaid coverage for a full 12 months after a pregnancy ends, well beyond the older 60-day window. Where that extended coverage applies, income changes do not end it before the 12 months run, and the annual renewal cycle resumes after the postpartum period closes.

Long-term care and HCBS-EBD waiver renewals

If you receive Medicaid long-term care in Colorado, in a nursing facility or through the Home and Community-Based Services waiver for the Elderly, Blind, or Disabled (HCBS-EBD), your renewal has two independent parts, and both must stay current.

Financial redetermination. Conducted on the 12-month cycle, this review includes the asset test federal law requires at renewal through the Asset Verification System. Colorado is an income-cap state: the standard for nursing-facility and waiver coverage is 300% of the SSI federal benefit rate, $2,982 a month for an individual in 2026, with a $2,000 countable-asset limit for a single applicant. The $3,000 couple limit HCPF publishes applies where both spouses are applying, not where one enters a nursing facility or waiver and the other stays home. Income above the cap routes through an income trust (Colorado's Qualified Income Trust) that names HCPF as remainder beneficiary. The review also confirms your Personal Needs Allowance ($110.36 a month for a nursing-facility resident in 2026) and, if your spouse is still at home, spousal-impoverishment protections. Under 10 CCR 2505-10 § 8.100.7.M.1 the Community Spouse Resource Allowance is the couple's total countable resources up to a 2026 maximum of $162,660, with no step that halves them, and the institutionalized spouse is resource-eligible once the couple's total sits at or below that allowance plus the individual $2,000.

Level-of-care reassessment. Your local Case Management Agency reassesses whether you still need an institutional (nursing-facility) level of care to keep waiver or institutional coverage. The two reviews are independent: you can pass the financial redetermination and fail the level-of-care review, or the reverse. If the level-of-care review is not approved, long-term-care Medicaid ends, though you may continue on regular aged, blind, and disabled Medicaid if you otherwise qualify.

Medicare Savings Program renewals

If you are a Medicare Savings Program (MSP) enrollee, your Qualified Medicare Beneficiary, Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary, or Qualifying Individual eligibility is redetermined at least annually on the non-MAGI cycle, with the state attempting ex parte first. For 2026 HCPF applies an MSP resource limit of $11,450 for an individual and $17,910 for a couple, and updates the income limits each April with the new Federal Poverty Level. That is not a more generous Colorado ceiling: it is the federal limit ($9,950 and $14,910) with the burial-fund exclusion of $1,500 per person, $3,000 per couple, folded into the published number, and HCPF allows that exclusion only if you have actually set the money aside. HCPF's public MSP page meanwhile still shows the 2025 figures ($11,160 and $17,470), a stale chart rather than a different rule.

For free counseling on MSP questions, and for help applying for the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy (Extra Help), Colorado's State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), housed within the state Division of Insurance, offers free, unbiased help at 17 locations statewide.

Returned mail: what happens if your packet comes back

If your renewal packet is returned as undeliverable, that can lead to a termination. The federal rule that required the state to search for a new address before acting, 42 CFR 435.919, was removed effective July 31, 2026. Federal law now says only that the state may act without advance notice when your whereabouts are unknown, so no warning may reach you (42 CFR 431.213(d)), and that coverage must be reinstated if your whereabouts become known while you are still eligible (42 CFR 431.231(d)). Colorado may still have its own procedures, so call HCPF or your county office if your mail has come back.

Your health plan's records are a separate file from the state's. Update both the moment you move:

  • Log into Colorado PEAK and update your contact information
  • Call the Member Contact Center at 1-800-221-3943
  • Update your address with your county human services office and your health plan
  • File a change-of-address form with the post office

Fair hearing rights: appealing a termination

If your renewal is denied or your coverage is terminated, you have a federal right to a fair hearing under Section 1902(a)(3) of the Social Security Act and 42 CFR 431.220. Federal law caps the request window at 90 days from the date the notice is mailed. That is a ceiling on what a state may allow, not a floor you are guaranteed: a shorter state deadline is fully enforceable, so go by the date on your own notice. In Colorado, a member requests a "state fair hearing" before an administrative law judge at the Colorado Office of Administrative Courts (OAC), not HCPF itself, and the request must reach the OAC no later than 60 days after the date on the Notice of Action. You can file the OAC's Request for State Level Hearing form, write a letter, or call the OAC at 303-866-5626.

Because Colorado is a managed-care state, a decision about a benefit or service made by your health plan generally has to go through the plan-level appeal first; only after an adverse plan decision may you request a state fair hearing at the OAC. The two managed-care plans named in Health First Colorado's own appeals materials are Denver (Elevate) Health Medicaid Choice and Rocky Mountain Health Plan Prime.

Keeping coverage during the appeal. Federal law continues your benefits during an appeal ("aid paid pending") only if you request the hearing before the action takes effect. In Colorado, this covers both a renewal termination that ends your coverage and a previously authorized service being reduced or stopped, and in either case benefits continue until the appeal is resolved only if your request lands inside a 10-day window. For a state or county eligibility decision, the OAC must receive the request no later than 10 days after the date of action. For a health plan's decision, you must contact the plan no later than 10 days from the date on the plan's letter, and if you then lose that plan appeal, the OAC must receive your state fair hearing request no later than 10 days from the plan's final decision. A denied first-time applicant may appeal but gets no continuation, and neither does someone denied a new benefit or service. If the action is later upheld, the state may recoup the cost of services furnished solely because benefits continued. Brevy's guide to Colorado Medicaid appeals and fair hearings covers this in more depth.

Members who declare U.S. citizenship or a satisfactory immigration status the state cannot promptly verify get a reasonable opportunity period (generally up to 90 days) during which otherwise-eligible members keep coverage while they produce documentation.

What goes wrong: two renewal scenarios

The cases below are illustrative composites, not real individuals.

Renewal scenarios worked end to end

90-day reconsideration: a missed packet after a move?

A member moves in August; the packet goes to the old address and is returned. It is re-mailed, but she loses track of it during a family emergency and her case closes at the end of October. In mid-November a pharmacy tells her she has no active coverage. She calls the Member Contact Center, learns about the 90-day window, and submits the form in December, inside 90 days of closure. She stayed eligible throughout, so a successful reconsideration puts her back on without a new application.

Missed the window: a discarded packet?

A member throws away a January packet thinking it is junk mail, and coverage closes at the end of February. He does not realize he is uninsured until mid-July, past the 90-day window that ended in late May, so he must file a new application through Colorado PEAK. Under the 2026 federal default, that application can pick up covered services in or after the third month before the application month if he was eligible then, but the earlier gap is not reopened.

Procedural vs eligibility-based termination

This distinction decides whether you get a 90-day reconsideration or have to file a new application.

Termination type What it means Reconsideration?
Procedural You did not return the renewal form, missed a signature, or did not respond to a request for information Yes for MAGI-based eligibility, 90 days from the termination date; a state option for non-MAGI groups
Eligibility-based HCPF determined you no longer meet income, assets, residency, citizenship, or a categorical rule No, file a new application or appeal

Read your notice carefully: "failure to provide requested information" points to the 90-day window, while a reference to an income or asset calculation or a categorical change points you to a new application, an appeal, or both.

What changes after 2026: six-month renewals

The pandemic-era unwinding is over. What matters for renewals now is a new federal change.

Section 71107 of the 2025 budget-reconciliation law (H.R.1, Public Law 119-21) requires states to redetermine eligibility once every 6 months instead of every 12 months for the ACA expansion-adult population, for renewals scheduled on or after January 1, 2027. Its only exemption covers an Indian or Urban Indian as defined in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, a California Indian, and anyone otherwise determined eligible as an Indian for the Indian Health Service. This change lands squarely on Colorado: the state has adopted ACA Medicaid expansion, so its expansion-adult group (ages 19-65, at an effective 138% FPL) is the population that will renew every six months starting in 2027.

The same law separately excuses a longer list of people from its new community-engagement (work) requirement, including someone who is medically frail or the parent or caretaker relative of a dependent child 13 and under. A work-requirement exemption is not a renewal exemption: as HCPF puts it, a member can be exempt from work requirements but still need to renew every 6 months.

The same law also shortens retroactive eligibility for applications filed on or after January 1, 2027, to two months before the application month for most enrollees and one month for the expansion group, down from the three-month default. The renewal packet remains the failsafe: one left unanswered still closes a case even when the person qualifies.

Common Colorado Medicaid recertification mistakes

  1. Ignoring the packet because it looks like junk mail. Open anything from Health First Colorado, HCPF, PEAK, or your county office.
  2. Assuming ex parte will handle everything. When it fails, the packet has to come back by the deadline printed on the form.
  3. Not knowing the 90-day reconsideration window exists. A procedural closure can be undone by returning the form within 90 days.
  4. Missing the asset-verification signature on an aged, blind, or disabled case. Without it the state cannot run the required asset check and the renewal stalls.
  5. Assuming children lose coverage when a parent does. Children under 19 keep their full 12-month period regardless of family income.
  6. Missing the 10-day window to keep coverage during an appeal. Request the hearing before the action takes effect.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often do I have to renew Colorado Medicaid?

At least once every 12 months, in the same month each year, set by your initial approval date. Under 42 CFR 435.916 that is a minimum for aged, blind, and disabled coverage, so a review can come sooner. One change is coming: the ACA expansion-adult group moves to a 6-month cycle for renewals scheduled on or after January 1, 2027.

What happens if I miss my Colorado Medicaid renewal deadline?

Your coverage closes at the end of your renewal month. If the closure was procedural, returning the renewal within 90 days gets your eligibility reconsidered without a new application, and if you are found still eligible your coverage is restored. That is federally required for MAGI-based eligibility and a state option for non-MAGI groups. If you miss the 90 days, you must file a new application through Colorado PEAK.

Where do I renew Health First Colorado?

The fastest way is online at Colorado PEAK (peak.my.site.com). You can also call the Member Contact Center at 1-800-221-3943, or renew in person or by mail at your county human services office. Online submission lets you upload documents and check status.

My child is on Medicaid. If my income rises mid-year, does my child lose coverage?

No. Under federal continuous-eligibility rules effective January 1, 2024, children under 19 have 12 months of continuous eligibility from enrollment. Even if your income rises above the limit, your child keeps coverage until the next annual renewal. Exceptions: turning 19, moving out of Colorado, death, voluntary disenrollment, or fraud.

Can I appeal if my renewal is denied?

Yes. Federal law caps the request window at 90 days from the date the notice is mailed, but in Colorado you request a state fair hearing at the Office of Administrative Courts within 60 days of the Notice of Action, so act quickly. If you request the hearing before the termination takes effect, and within 10 days of the date of action whether your coverage is ending or a service is being reduced, your coverage continues pending the decision.

Colorado Medicaid renewal contacts

These offices can help you renew, recover coverage lost in the past 90 days, or appeal a termination.,

Colorado PEAK Renew online, upload documents, update your address, and check case status. peak.my.site.com
Health First Colorado Member Contact Center Renewals by phone, packet requests, address updates, and case status. 1-800-221-3943 (State Relay 711)
County human services office Eligibility casework, in-person renewals, and document drop-off.
Colorado Office of Administrative Courts Requests for a state fair hearing on a Medicaid decision. 303-866-5626
Aging and Disability Resources for Colorado (ADRC) Statewide entry point to long-term services and supports. 1-844-265-2372

To confirm your renewal was processed, log into Colorado PEAK and check your case status, or call the Member Contact Center at 1-800-221-3943. Brevy's guides to how to apply for Colorado Medicaid, income limits, and long-term care cover the eligibility rules you confirm at renewal.

Learn More

MedicaidColorado Medicaid hubColorado Medicaid (Health First Colorado) covers long-term care for seniors. Learn income limits, income trust rules, eligibility, and how to apply in 2026. MedicaidHow to apply for Colorado MedicaidColorado Medicaid needs an income trust if income tops $2,982/month and stays under the private-pay rate. Apply via PEAK online, phone, or a county office. MedicaidColorado Medicaid eligibility and income limitsColorado Medicaid income limits 2026: the MAGI limits by group (138% FPL for adults, no asset test), the $2,982 long-term-care cap, and the income trust. MedicaidColorado Medicaid appeals and fair hearingsHow to appeal a Colorado Medicaid denial, reduction, or termination, keep benefits during the appeal, exhaust a health plan appeal, and request a fair hearing. MedicaidColorado Medicaid HCBS waiversColorado Medicaid HCBS waivers pay for home and community care through the EBD waiver. See who qualifies, what it covers, and how to apply in 2026. MedicaidMedicaid renewals by stateMedicaid works differently in every state, from who qualifies to what's covered and how to apply. See what varies and jump to your state's full guide.

Find personalized help renewing your Colorado Medicaid coverage at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

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Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.