Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through Alternative Care Facilities (ACF) benefit under the Elderly, Blind and Disabled (EBD) waiver. Medicaid does not pay the facility’s room and board either way; only the care and service component.
What Colorado covers
| Waiver / state plan option | Alternative Care Facilities (ACF) benefit under the Elderly, Blind and Disabled (EBD) waiver |
|---|---|
| Covers an assisted living setting? | Yes: Alternative Care Facilities (ACF) are Health First Colorado (Colorado’s Medicaid program) certified assisted living residences that offer elders and persons with disabilities health services in a community setting, which include: 24-hour protective oversight, Daily living skills assistance, Personal care services, Homemaker services. |
| Room and board | Never covered by Medicaid, in Colorado or any state; see below. |
The room-and-board split
Federal law is the floor every state builds on: “The Secretary may by waiver provide that a State plan approved under this subchapter may include as “medical assistance” under such plan payment for part or all of the cost of home or community-based services (other than room and board) approved by the Secretary” (42 U.S.C. §1396n(c)(1), Social Security Act §1915(c)). The words in parentheses do the work: whatever a state’s waiver pays for inside an assisted living community, it is not the rent, the meals, or the room itself. That portion stays the resident’s own to fund, out of income, savings, or a family contribution; the waiver only ever reaches the care and service layer on top of it. Colorado’s own materials say the same thing directly: “The maximum amount a residential provider may charge a participant Member in a CHRP Habilitation, GRSS, IRSS, ACF, or SLP setting for Room and Board will increase to $810.00 beginning Jan. 1, 2026.” (HCPF IM 25-030, effective Jan. 1, 2026).
The waitlist
Not published by the state in the materials reviewed this session.
Paying for care is the harder half
What a waiver covers is only part of the problem, because room and board still has to come from somewhere, and an adviser can look at income, savings and the likely timeline together before a placement decision is made.
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What you get to keep: the personal needs allowance
$184.00–$435.46 a month: “The minimum amount Members may receive for PNA will increase to $184.00 per month. The maximum amount will also increase to $435.46 per month. A member’s PNA is determined by their monthly income level.” This is the amount of a waiver participant’s own income the state lets them keep for personal spending after the rest goes toward the cost of their care; it varies by state because each state sets its own figure inside the federal floor.
What this doesn’t answer
Colorado’s own EBD waiver page states waivers “sometimes have waitlists” but no primary HCPF source read this session states EBD’s current open/closed status or a numeric interest-list count, so waitlist status is left unpublished rather than guessed. The $810 room-and-board cap and the $184–$435.46 personal needs allowance range both take effect January 1, 2026 under 10 CCR 2505-10.
Sources
- Colorado HCPF: Alternative Care Facilities
- Colorado HCPF IM 25-030, 2026 Room and Board and PNA Changes
Read September 3, 2026.
Same question, other states: Florida · Connecticut.
Related: what assisted living actually costs · assisted living vs. staying home vs. a CCRC · why home care has a waitlist and a nursing home doesn’t.
General information drawn from each state’s own Medicaid agency and federal statute, not legal, tax or financial advice. Medicaid is administered state by state; waiver names, coverage decisions, waitlists and allowance amounts change by state budget and legislative action. This page cannot see your own state’s current caseload. We are not a law firm, a benefits counselor, or a fiduciary, and this is not personalized advice. We sell nothing on this page and earn nothing from it.