What does Colorado Medicaid pay for ABA therapy?
Health First Colorado pays $68.80 an hour when a technician delivers ABA therapy, and about half again as much when a BCBA does.
Those rates dropped in October 2025, and group therapy took the deepest cut. Here is the full schedule and where every figure came from.
Group therapy led by a BCBA fell from $17.83 to $9.34 per 15 minutes, a drop of nearly half.
On this page
What are the current rates?
| Code | Service | Rate | Per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97153 | Direct therapy, technician | $17.20 / 15 min | $68.80 |
| 97155 | Therapy with protocol modification, BCBA | $25.80 / 15 min | $103.20 |
| 97154 | Group therapy, technician | $8.81 / 15 min | $35.24 |
| 97158 | Group therapy, BCBA | $9.34 / 15 min | $37.36 |
| 97151 | Assessment | $866.88 flat | once per 365 days |
One Colorado quirk: nationally the assessment code bills in 15-minute units, but here it’s a flat annual fee.
What changed in October 2025?
Put the July 2025 and October 2025 fee schedules side by side and every ABA code came down. The group codes took nearly all of the damage, with the BCBA group rate cut by 47.6 percent while direct one-to-one therapy lost only 5.3 percent.
Why it happened is in the state’s own budget request. Back in February 2024 these rates went up, benchmarked against other states including Nebraska, which the department itself flagged as having very high rates. Dropping Nebraska from that benchmark reset the numbers, and HCPF projected it would save $19.49 million in fiscal year 2025-26.
How does Colorado compare, and why now?
Even after the cut we pay well above our neighbor. Montana allows $11.36 per 15 minutes for that same direct-therapy code, and Colorado still sits above where it was back in 2021.
What put these rates under pressure was spending. Here is the trajectory the state was watching.
| Year | Colorado fee-for-service Medicaid ABA payments |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $60.1 million |
| 2023 | $163.5 million |
| 2024 | $230.3 million |
A federal audit released in February 2026 reviewed claims from 2022 and 2023 and flagged a substantial share of what it examined as improper, which is part of why this benefit draws scrutiny.
What do families actually pay?
None of these numbers land on your bill. They’re what Health First Colorado pays the provider for members 20 and younger who meet medical necessity under EPSDT.
The part families actually feel is paperwork. Authorizations run up to six months at a time, requested documents are due back within four business days, and a denial gives you 30 days to appeal. Our Colorado Medicaid ABA guide walks through all of it, and we handle the authorizations ourselves for the families we serve.
Methodology
Every rate here comes from HCPF’s published Health First Colorado fee schedules. The current figures sit in the July 2026 file, unchanged since October 2025, and we measured the drop against the July 2025 file. Hourly numbers are just the 15-minute rate times four. Authorization details trace to HCPF memo PM 25-005 and the department’s FY2025-26 budget request, spending and audit figures to the HHS Office of Inspector General report A-09-24-02004, and Montana’s numbers to its July 2025 Medicaid fee schedule.
One caveat that matters: these are maximum allowable fee-for-service rates, not what a provider ends up collecting after billing.
Cite this: Budding Futures ABA analysis of Colorado HCPF Health First Colorado fee schedules (July 2025, October 2025, July 2026) and FY2025-26 provider rate adjustment request. Published August 14, 2026.
Frequently asked questions from parents
Q: How much does Colorado Medicaid pay for ABA therapy?
A: Technician-delivered therapy works out to $68.80 an hour and BCBA-delivered therapy to $103.20, with the per-code detail in the table above.
Q: Did Colorado cut ABA rates?
A: Yes, in October 2025. Every ABA code came down, and the group codes were hit hardest. The department expected the change to save roughly $19 million over the fiscal year.
Q: Do parents pay these rates?
A: No. Health First Colorado pays the provider directly for eligible members 20 and younger. Families don’t receive a bill for these amounts.
Q: Can I cite these figures?
A: Yes, with attribution. Use the citation line above and link to this page so readers can check the source files and the caveats.
ABA therapy support near you
In-Home ABA Therapy Across Colorado
How Budding Futures delivers BCBA-led ABA at home across Colorado.
ABA Therapy in Colorado Springs
In-home, BCBA-led ABA for Colorado Springs families.
ABA Therapy for Kids in Thornton
In-home ABA therapy for Thornton families.
Sources
Colorado HCPF
Health First Colorado provider rates and fee schedules.
Colorado HCPF PM 25-005
Pediatric behavioral therapy policy clarification, April 2025.
Colorado HCPF FY2025-26 R-09
Provider rate adjustments budget request to the Joint Budget Committee.
HHS Office of Inspector General, 2026
Audit A-09-24-02004 of Colorado fee-for-service Medicaid payments for applied behavior analysis.
Montana DPHHS
Medicaid ABA fee schedule effective July 2025.
Have Health First Colorado and need ABA?
Tell us your child’s age and county. We’ll verify your coverage, explain the authorization steps, and tell you honestly what availability looks like.