Rehabs That Take Health First Colorado

Rehabs That Take Health First Colorado: Our Campuses

These campuses hold contracts with the Colorado Medicaid plans listed. Several cover only certain levels of care, such as detox, so admissions checks your plan and the level of care you need on one call.

Call 855-520-2898 Verify your benefits

Checked against our contract list on September 25, 2026. Plans change; admissions confirms coverage before you travel.

Health First Colorado covers behavioral health care, and substance use treatment sits inside that benefit. The part almost nobody explains is who actually holds it.

The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing runs Health First Colorado, the state’s Medicaid program [1]. Inside it, Regional Accountable Entities hold the capitated behavioral health benefit. They build the provider networks and coordinate care for members in their region [1].

So the body that shapes your treatment is a regional one. Which one you get depends on where you live.

This page covers who holds the benefit, what it reaches, how to find your own entity, why a bed is the hardest thing to arrange, what our two Colorado campuses run, and the alternatives. Our guide to Does Insurance Cover Rehab? covers the wider picture. You can also verify coverage with our admissions team, and our Colorado treatment page lists what runs in the state.

Health First Colorado: What It Is, and Who Holds Your Benefit

Eligibility is the state’s call, not a treatment provider’s. Ask the state first.

The delivery system is where Colorado differs from most states. The Accountable Care Collaborative was created in 2011 and is the main delivery system for Health First Colorado [1]. Regional Accountable Entities hold the behavioral health benefit inside it [1]. Two managed care organizations deliver physical health care in certain parts of the state [1].

The current setup is recent, which matters if you are reading older advice. New contracts with those entities, under what the state calls ACC Phase III, began on July 1, 2025 [1]. The department announced the awards for the four contracts in September 2024 [1].

Four, not seven. A page that names seven regional entities is describing the phase before this one. The network it points at may no longer be yours.

What the Benefit Reaches for Substance Use Treatment

The department publishes its behavioral health service categories. They include safety net and crisis services, residential and inpatient services, population-based services, integrated care, outpatient services and community-based services [2].

Read that as the shape of the benefit, not as a promise about your case. What reaches one member turns on the entity’s network, on an assessment, and on approval.

Federal guidance gives you the words for that call. Its settings run from a doctor’s office up to acute care inpatient, with day programs and intensive outpatient in between [5]. It names five detox levels, and puts round-the-clock medical supervision at the top end [5].

Use those names. Nobody can answer a question about “rehab”. Anyone can answer one about medically monitored inpatient detoxification.

Plan for more than one decision, too. Federal guidance defines detox as evaluation, stabilization and entry into treatment. It says plainly that detoxification “is not substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation” [6]. The stage after it gets approved on its own. Our explainers on Medical Detox and Levels of Care describe what each tier involves.

Finding Out Which Regional Entity Holds Your Benefit

This is the single most useful thing to establish before making any other call, and the state publishes it plainly.

The department’s Phase III page carries a region-by-region table naming the entity awarded each contract from July 1, 2025: Rocky Mountain Health Plans in Region 1, Northeast Health Partners in Region 2, Colorado Community Health Alliance in Region 3, and Colorado Access in Region 4 [1]. Your region follows your county of residence, and the table on that page is the authority for which is which.

Once you know the name, the questions change from general to answerable. Which providers does this entity’s network hold at the level of care recommended. What has to be authorized in advance. Who submits the request, you or the provider.

Why a Residential Bed Is the Hardest Thing to Arrange

Residential and inpatient services sit on the department’s own list of service categories [2]. So the benefit reaches that level. Whether a bed is available is a separate question, and the two get confused constantly.

The reason is in the structure above. A regional entity holds a capitated benefit and builds the network of providers in its region [1]. A bed is reachable only through that network, at that level, with approval behind it. A refusal is often about network and approval, not about whether the benefit exists.

That changes what you ask. Not “does Medicaid cover residential treatment”, which invites a general answer. Instead: which residential providers are in this entity’s network, and what has to be approved for me to reach one. Write down the answer and the date.

If nothing is open nearby at that level, ask two more things. What does the entity fund instead, and how long is the wait? A day program starting this week often beats a bed a month away. Our walkthrough of How to Get Into Rehab covers what the first call needs from you.

Our Colorado Campuses, and What Each One Runs

There are two, and they do different jobs.

Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village is at 630 Plaza Drive, Suite 101, Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Its own page publishes outpatient care, intensive outpatient programming and dual diagnosis treatment [7].

The Recovery Village Palmer Lake sits between Denver and Colorado Springs. Its own page publishes medical detox, residential and inpatient treatment, a partial hospitalization program, intensive outpatient and outpatient care, and aftercare [8].

Between them they cover the range. Admissions will say which site fits an assessment, and what is open.

Both campuses publish their own accepted-insurance notes. Both name commercial carriers: Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana and United [7] [8]. Neither note is an answer about Health First Colorado. If Medicaid is your coverage, ask admissions to check it directly rather than reading a carrier list as a yes. Our pages on Aetna Insurance Coverage for Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Cigna Insurance Rehab Coverage cover the commercial side.

Marketplace, Employer and Self-Pay Alternatives

An employer plan. If anyone in the household has one, check it alongside Medicaid rather than instead of it. Parity law is why. 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 [3]. The scope: non-federal governmental plans with more than 50 employees, private employer group plans with more than 50 employees, and the individual market [3]. Small-employer plans sit outside it. They are covered instead through the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits requirement.

A Marketplace plan. These cover mental health and substance use disorder services as an essential health benefit. They cannot refuse or surcharge a pre-existing condition, and they cannot apply yearly or lifetime dollar limits [4].

Self-pay. Ask the price by level of care, what a deposit buys, and whether a payment plan exists. Our page on How Much Does Rehab Cost? sets out our own published ranges. Inpatient Rehab and Outpatient Rehab explain the tiers, Humana Insurance Rehab Coverage covers one more carrier, and How to Go to Rehab and Keep Your Job covers time off work.

The Nationwide Directory of Drug and Alcohol Rehab Facilities and the full list of Drug & Alcohol Rehab Facilities show where else the family runs care. SAMHSA also runs FindTreatment.gov.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

1. Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Accountable Care Collaborative Phase III. https://hcpf.colorado.gov/accphaseIII
2. Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Behavioral Health. https://hcpf.colorado.gov/behavioral-health
3. 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
4. HealthCare.gov. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Health Coverage Options. https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/mental-health-substance-abuse-coverage/
5. 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/
6. 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/
7. Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village. Denver Mental Health and Counseling, Highlands Ranch, Colorado — Levels of Care and Accepted Insurance. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/denver/
8. The Recovery Village Palmer Lake. The Recovery Village Palmer Lake, Colorado — Levels of Care and Accepted Insurance. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/palmer-lake/

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

Kevin Wandler, MD

Chief Medical Officer, The Recovery Village