Rehabs That Take Blue Cross Blue Shield in Colorado: Our In-Network Campuses
These Colorado treatment centers are in network with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Admissions checks your exact plan, what it pays at each level of care and whether prior authorization is needed, on one call.
Call 855-520-2898 Verify your benefits
- The Recovery Village Palmer Lake
Palmer Lake, Colorado · Detox, inpatient, PHP, IOP, outpatient, aftercare
In network with Blue Cross Blue Shield: substance use treatment - Denver Mental Health & Counseling
Highlands Ranch, Colorado · Outpatient, IOP, dual diagnosis
In network with Blue Cross Blue Shield: substance use and mental health
Traveling for treatment? See every campus that takes Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Checked against our contract list on September 25, 2026. Plans change; admissions confirms coverage before you travel.
An Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan in Colorado will normally cover substance use treatment. Whether your particular plan pays for a particular level of care at a particular facility is a much narrower question, and this page is about how to get that answer rather than how to guess it.
The short version: federal parity law sets a floor under substance use benefits, the plan document sets the terms, and a benefits check settles the rest. You can verify your insurance directly, or read on first. Our overview of rehab insurance coverage covers the ground that applies to every carrier.
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan Types Sold in Colorado
Coverage in Colorado arrives through one of four broad routes, and they behave differently.
Employer-sponsored group plans are the most common. Individual and family plans are bought through Connect for Health Colorado, which CMS lists as Colorado’s state-based exchange for plan year 2026 [3] — Colorado does not use the federal HealthCare.gov platform. Medicare Advantage is a separate product line with its own rules. Health First Colorado, the state’s Medicaid program, is separate again and is covered further down.
This page does not publish a roster of the exact products any carrier sells in a given year. That list changes annually, and a page that gets it wrong sends someone to a plan that no longer exists. Connect for Health Colorado and your employer’s benefits team are the current sources.
What does hold across the individual market: all Marketplace plans cover mental health and substance abuse services as essential health benefits [2]. Marketplace plans cannot deny coverage or charge more because of a pre-existing condition, including a substance use disorder, and they cannot put yearly or lifetime dollar limits on an essential health benefit [2].
What Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Colorado Typically Authorizes at Detox, Residential, PHP and IOP
There is no honest generic answer to this, and pages that give one are guessing.
What can be said is what constrains the answer. Under federal parity law, where a plan covers mental health and substance use benefits it may not apply limits to them that are more restrictive than the limits it applies to medical and surgical benefits [1]. Prior authorization and step therapy count as limits for that purpose, alongside caps on days and visits [1]. The scope is defined: non-federal governmental plans with more than 50 employees, group health plans of private employers with more than 50 employees, and the individual market [1]. Plans from small employers are not covered directly; they get comparable protection through the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits requirement.
In practice that means each level of care is authorized on medical necessity rather than by a fixed allowance. Detox is generally authorized in short increments and reviewed frequently. Residential care, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs are usually authorized for an initial period and then extended through continued-stay review.
What your plan actually allows is in your plan document and in the benefits check. Our explainers on medical detox and levels of care describe what each tier involves clinically, which is the vocabulary a verification call uses.
Our Colorado Campuses: Highlands Ranch and Palmer Lake
We run two sites in Colorado, and they do different jobs — which matters, because the one an assessment sends you to depends on the level of care rather than on the postcode.
Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village, in Highlands Ranch, publishes outpatient care, an intensive outpatient program and dual diagnosis treatment on its own page [5]. The Recovery Village Palmer Lake publishes a fuller ladder: medical detox, residential and inpatient treatment, a partial hospitalization program, an intensive outpatient program, outpatient care and aftercare planning [6].
So the practical split is this. Where the recommendation is outpatient or intensive outpatient care, with or without a co-occurring mental health condition, either site may fit. Where it involves supervised withdrawal or a residential stay, Palmer Lake is the one that publishes those levels. An assessment decides; a page cannot.
Our Colorado treatment overview covers the state more broadly, and outpatient rehab describes the lightest tier in general terms.
Checking Anthem coverage for treatment in Colorado
Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village is in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and its own page lists outpatient care, an intensive outpatient program and dual diagnosis treatment. Admissions can run your policy and tell you what it covers before you commit to anything.
Check your coverage and admissions
Verify your insurance
Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village is part of our family of treatment centers. See the Denver Mental Health & Counseling campus.
In-Network, Out-of-Network and Traveling Out of Colorado for Care
Network status is a different question from whether a carrier sells plans in your state, and the two get conflated constantly.
We do not publish network status on this page. A carrier can sell plans across Colorado and contract with none of our sites, or contract with a site while selling no individual plan in the state at all. The only reliable answer comes from admissions running your specific policy, or from your plan’s own provider directory. Call to verify coverage before you rely on an answer from anywhere else, including here.
Traveling is a real option and a real complication. Where a Colorado plan is a preferred provider product, out-of-network care at a campus in another state may still be partly covered, usually at a worse rate. Where it is a health maintenance product, out-of-network care may not be covered at all outside an emergency. A Blue plan’s national network arrangements can also change the answer. That is three different outcomes from the same question, which is why it has to be asked about your policy rather than about the carrier.
If travel is on the table, our directory of our own campuses gives each of them a page of its own and the nationwide rehab directory is organized by state.
Prior Authorization and Continued Stay Review, Step by Step
This is the part that surprises people, so here is the sequence.
First, prior authorization. Before an admission at most levels, the facility submits clinical information and the plan decides whether the level of care is medically necessary. That decision is the authorization, and it usually comes with a number of days attached.
Second, continued stay review. Before those days run out, the clinical team submits an update and asks for more. This repeats. It is normal utilization review rather than a sign that anything has gone wrong, but it does mean someone has to keep filing.
Third, denial and appeal. If an extension is refused, the decision is appealable and the clock is short: an internal appeal must be filed “within 180 days (6 months) of receiving notice that your claim was denied” [7], and the insurer must complete it “within 30 days if your appeal is for a service you haven’t received yet”, or “within 60 days if your appeal is for a service you’ve already received” [7]. If the internal appeal fails, an independent external review follows, requested in writing “within 4 months after the date you receive a notice or final determination from your insurer that your claim has been denied” [8], and your insurer “is required by law to accept the external reviewer’s decision” [8]. Ask at admission who handles reviews and who handles appeals.
Parity is what keeps this process comparable to the medical side [1]. If prior authorization is required for substance use care but not for a comparable medical benefit, that is the kind of difference parity is designed to address.
If Anthem Is Not the Right Route: Health First Colorado, the Marketplace and Self-Pay
Three alternatives, in the order most people should consider them.
Health First Colorado is the state’s Medicaid program, administered by the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Behavioral health, including substance use treatment, runs through Regional Accountable Entities, which are responsible for administering the capitated behavioral health benefit and for establishing and supporting networks of providers for members in their region [4]. That is a different structure from a commercial plan, and which regional entity covers you depends on where you live.
Connect for Health Colorado is the route for an individual plan if you have no employer coverage [3]. Marketplace plans must cover substance use disorder treatment as an essential health benefit, with no yearly or lifetime dollar limit on it [2].
Self-pay is the third route, and the cost follows the length of the stay as well as the level of care — our breakdown of what rehab costs sets out the drivers. To put a figure on it, our own cost page puts detox at $250 to $800 a day and a basic residential stay at $2,000 to $20,000, with drug and alcohol rehab overall running from $2,000 to $25,000 and up. If you are weighing other carriers, we have separate pages on Aetna coverage, Cigna coverage and Humana coverage.
What the Benefits Verification Call Covers
It is shorter than people expect and it produces something concrete.
Have these ready: the insurance card, the member and group numbers, the policyholder’s date of birth, and a rough description of what is being used and for how long. The last part matters because the recommended level of care drives everything else.
The call establishes four things. Whether the policy is active. What the plan covers at each level of care. Whether this campus is in network for this specific product. And what has to be authorized before an admission can happen.
What it does not do is diagnose anyone or commit you to anything. Our page on how to get into rehab covers the sequence from that call onward, and if the worry is employment, our guide to keeping your job during rehab covers leave. For anyone weighing residential care specifically, inpatient rehab describes what that level involves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my Anthem plan cover detox at Palmer Lake if I start outpatient in Highlands Ranch? Treat it as two decisions rather than one. Denver Mental Health & Counseling in Highlands Ranch publishes outpatient care, an intensive outpatient program and dual diagnosis treatment on its own page. Medical detox is among the levels The Recovery Village Palmer Lake publishes on its own page. A step up to detox is a fresh medical-necessity decision at a different site, so it is authorized separately, and the network answer for one site is not the network answer for the other. Ask admissions to run your policy against both before anyone travels.
Is Denver Mental Health & Counseling in network with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Colorado? We do not publish network status here, because it varies by product line and employer group and changes over time. Call to verify coverage: admissions can run your specific policy, and your plan’s own provider directory is the other authoritative source. A carrier selling plans in Colorado tells you nothing about whether a given campus is contracted.
What happens if Anthem stops authorizing more days partway through treatment? That is a continued-stay denial, and it is appealable on a short clock. An internal appeal must be filed “within 180 days (6 months) of receiving notice that your claim was denied”, and the insurer must complete it “within 30 days if your appeal is for a service you haven’t received yet”. If it is refused, an independent external review follows, requested in writing “within 4 months after the date you receive a notice or final determination from your insurer that your claim has been denied”; standard external reviews are decided “no later than 45 days after the request was received” and your insurer “is required by law to accept the external reviewer’s decision”. The clinical team files the paperwork, so ask at admission who owns it.
Can I use my Colorado Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan at an out-of-state campus? Sometimes, and it depends on the product. A preferred provider plan may cover out-of-network or out-of-state care at a reduced rate. A health maintenance product may not cover it outside an emergency. Ask admissions to check your specific policy before making travel plans.
What do I need in front of me for an Anthem benefits check? The insurance card, the member and group numbers, the policyholder’s date of birth, and a rough description of what is being used and for how long. The call confirms whether the policy is active, what it covers at each level of care, whether the campus is in network for that product, and what must be authorized before admission.
Sources
- 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
- HealthCare.gov. Mental health and substance abuse health coverage options. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/mental-health-substance-abuse-coverage/
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. State Marketplaces — Plan Year 2026. Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. https://www.cms.gov/cciio/resources/fact-sheets-and-faqs/state-marketplaces
- Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Accountable Care Collaborative Phase III. State of Colorado. https://hcpf.colorado.gov/accphaseIII
- The Recovery Village. Denver Mental Health & Counseling — Levels of Care. Advanced Recovery Systems. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/denver/
- The Recovery Village. The Recovery Village Palmer Lake — Levels of Care. Advanced Recovery Systems. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/palmer-lake/
- HealthCare.gov. Internal appeals. US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. https://www.healthcare.gov/appeal-insurance-company-decision/internal-appeals/
- HealthCare.gov. External review. US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. https://www.healthcare.gov/appeal-insurance-company-decision/external-review/
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
