The agency that runs Colorado’s Medicaid program has a plan to get out of the state budget crisis without making “draconian” cuts, but it likely will require decreasing payments to providers for a subset of health care services.

Colorado faces a roughly $783 million budget shortfall because of federal tax changes signed into law by President Donald Trump last month that cut into the state’s revenues. Lawmakers, who already made cuts to close a $1.2 billion gap this spring, will return to the statehouse next week to look for solutions .

Since Medicaid accounts for about one-third of the state’s budget, the odds of closing the hole without touching it are virtually nil, Kim Bimestefer, executive director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, said Tuesday.

The

See Full Page