Here are numbers, because a page that asks this question and gives none is wasting your time. Our own cost page puts drug and alcohol rehab overall at $2,000 to $25,000 and up. It puts medical detox at $250 to $800 a day, basic residential treatment at $2,000 to $20,000, a 30-day intensive outpatient program at $3,000 to $10,000, and partial hospitalization at $350 to $450 a day.
Those are our published ranges, not federal figures and not a Colorado survey. And that is the first thing to understand about this question: the price follows the level of care and the length of stay, not the state line. What Colorado changes is not the sticker — it is which payer route you are on, and therefore how much of the sticker reaches you.
This page sets out the ranges, what moves them, what changes under a commercial plan and under Health First Colorado, what our Colorado campuses publish, and what to ask about the bill. Our page on How Much Does Rehab Cost? sets out ranges by level of care and names program length first among the things that change the price, Does Insurance Cover Rehab? covers the coverage side, and you can verify your insurance with admissions at any point.
Where Those Ranges Come From, and the Number We Will Not Print
The figures above are ours. We publish them on our own cost page, and this page repeats them rather than inventing state-specific ones. That matters when you are comparing quotes: a range we publish is a starting point for a conversation, not a price list, and no program is bound by it.
One number you will not find here. We do not publish an average cost of rehab in Colorado, and we have not found a state or federal page that does. A number like that would be an average across programs we know nothing about, at levels of care that are not comparable. Quoting one would make this page look precise while telling you nothing you could act on.
The National Center for Health Statistics puts Colorado’s 2024 age-adjusted drug overdose death rate at 25.7 per 100,000, from 1,610 drug overdose deaths that year [6].
If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
What Actually Moves the Number
Three things, in order of size.
The level of care. Federal treatment guidance sets out the settings, running from a physician’s office through freestanding treatment facilities, then intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs, up to acute care inpatient [1]. The same chapter describes five adult detoxification levels [1]. A week at the top of that range and a week at the bottom are not the same purchase, and quotes are only comparable within a level.
Whether detox is counted separately. It usually is. Federal guidance says detoxification “is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation” [2]. So a quote for “rehab” may or may not include the days before it. Ask which, in those words, before comparing two numbers.
The length of stay. A per-day rate and a program price answer different questions. Get both, and get the assumed number of days in writing, because that is the figure most likely to change once an assessment is done.
Our explainers on Medical Detox and Levels of Care, which sets out five treatment levels, describe what each tier involves clinically.
If You Have a Marketplace or Employer Plan
With coverage, the sticker stops being the number that matters. Two federal rules set what the plan has to do, and one number sets your worst case.
Every Marketplace plan covers mental health and substance use disorder services as an essential health benefit [3]. A plan cannot refuse or surcharge coverage for a pre-existing condition, and it cannot put yearly or lifetime dollar limits on those services [3].
Under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, a plan that covers mental health and substance use care may not apply harsher limits to it than it applies to medical and surgical care, and that reaches prior authorization and step therapy as well as visit and day caps [4]. The scope is worth knowing: it applies to non-federal governmental plans with more than 50 employees, to group health plans of private employers with more than 50 employees, and to the individual market [4]. Plans from small employers are not covered directly; they get comparable protection through the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits requirement.
Then ask for the out-of-pocket maximum for the year. Deductibles and coinsurance decide the shape of the bill; that figure decides how bad it can get. Ask for it early, write it down with the date, and ask what does not count toward it.
If You Have Health First Colorado
The state’s Medicaid agency says it administers Health First Colorado, Colorado’s Medicaid program [8]. That program changes the cost question rather than answering it, and there is one piece of federal paperwork worth knowing about.
Colorado holds a Section 1115 demonstration that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services list under the name “Colorado Expanding the Substance Use Disorder Continuum of Care” [5]. The federal listing records its status as pending, with a temporary extension approved and a longer extension application still pending [5]. In plain terms: the demonstration continues under a temporary extension while a longer one is decided.
This page deliberately prints no end date for it. The listing shows a date beside an extension approval rather than a settled term, and a date read off the wrong row is exactly the kind of thing a reader would plan around.
What that means for you practically is narrower than it sounds. A demonstration is an arrangement between a state and the federal government; it is not a promise to fund your admission. The question that decides your bill is still whether the level of care an assessment recommended is authorized for you, by whoever holds your benefit. Ask that, and ask what happens if the answer is no. Our walkthrough of How to Get Into Rehab covers what the first call needs from you.
Our Colorado Campuses, and What Each Publishes
We run two sites in Colorado, and they are not interchangeable.
The Recovery Village Palmer Lake is the one in the mountains north of Colorado Springs. Its own page publishes medical detox, inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization programming, intensive outpatient programming, outpatient programming and aftercare planning [7]. That card list is the campus’s own, and it is what to price against.
The second site is in Highlands Ranch, south of Denver. Rather than list levels for it from a roster, ask admissions which site runs the level an assessment recommended and what is open — that answer changes week to week and is worth getting from a person. Our Colorado treatment options page shows what runs in the state, and Inpatient Rehab and Outpatient Rehab explain the two tiers most of these decisions turn on.
Nothing about a campus’s location changes the rules above. Price the level, not the postcode.
Paying Directly, and What to Ask About the Bill
Self-pay is a real route and it is a negotiation, so go in with questions rather than a budget.
Ask for the price of each level separately, and the assumed number of days behind each one. Ask what a deposit secures and what happens to it if an assessment moves you to a different level. Ask what is included and what is billed separately — medication, laboratory work, a psychiatric consultation and transport are the usual four. Ask whether payment can be spread over time, and get the answer in writing rather than as a reassurance on a call.
Then ask the question people skip: what happens if you need longer than the quote assumes. That is the gap that turns a planned cost into an unplanned one.
If work is part of the worry, How to Go to Rehab and Keep Your Job covers time away. SAMHSA also runs FindTreatment.gov as a locator.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does rehab cost in Colorado? Our own published ranges are the place to start: drug and alcohol rehab overall at $2,000 to $25,000 and up, basic residential treatment at $2,000 to $20,000, and a 30-day intensive outpatient program at $3,000 to $10,000. Those are our figures rather than federal ones. We publish no Colorado average, because an average across programs and levels of care is not a number anyone can act on.
How much does medical detox cost? Our own cost page puts medical detox at $250 to $800 a day, and partial hospitalization at $350 to $450 a day. Price detox separately from whatever follows it, because federal guidance treats them as different things: detoxification “is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation”. Ask any program whether its quote includes the days before treatment starts.
Will insurance cover the level of care I was told I need? That is verified against your own policy rather than answered on a page. What is fixed is the floor: a Marketplace plan covers mental health and substance use disorder services as an essential health benefit, with no yearly or lifetime dollar limits on them. Parity rules add that limits cannot be harsher than those on medical and surgical care, including prior authorization.
Can I start treatment before the money is sorted out? Ask, because the answer is specific to the program and the level of care, and it often depends on what can be authorized rather than on what you can pay today. Put it plainly on the first call: what can start this week, what has to be approved first, and who sends that request. Write down the name of whoever answers and the date.
What is included in the price, and what is billed separately? Ask for that list in writing rather than accepting a single figure. The four that usually sit outside a program price are medication, laboratory work, a psychiatric consultation and transport. Also ask what the quote assumes about length of stay, because that assumption is the part most likely to change once an assessment is done.
Sources
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, TIP 45 — Chapter 2: Settings, Levels of Care, and Patient Placement. NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64109/
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2006). Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, TIP 45 — Chapter 1: Overview, Essential Concepts, and Definitions in Detoxification. NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64119/
- HealthCare.gov. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Health Coverage Options. https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/mental-health-substance-abuse-coverage/
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). https://www.cms.gov/marketplace/private-health-insurance/mental-health-parity-addiction-equity
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicaid.gov. Colorado Expanding the Substance Use Disorder Continuum of Care — Section 1115 Demonstration. https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/section-1115-demo/demonstration-and-waiver-list/81176
- National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug Overdose Mortality — Stats of the States. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/deaths/drug-overdose.html
- The Recovery Village Palmer Lake. The Recovery Village Palmer Lake, Colorado — Levels of Care. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/palmer-lake/
- Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Health Care Policy and Financing. https://hcpf.colorado.gov/
This page is for general information and is not medical advice. Only a licensed clinician who knows your history can tell you what is right for you. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911. For free, confidential support 24/7, call or text 988.
Author
Chief Medical Officer,
The Recovery Village
