{"id":16279,"date":"2025-10-04T18:16:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T00:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/do-more-with-less-montezuma-social-services-face-financial-pressure\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:56:14","slug":"do-more-with-less-montezuma-social-services-face-financial-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/do-more-with-less-montezuma-social-services-face-financial-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Do more with less:\u2019 Montezuma Social Services face financial pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County building (The Journal file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed on July 4, low-income adult Medicaid recipients must now have their eligibility redetermined<\/a> every six months instead of once a year \u2013 a change that could double the workload for the Montezuma County Department of Social Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that about 15,000 folks in Montezuma County access and utilize Medicaid,\u201d said Social Services Director Hargraves during a meeting with the County Commissioners. \u201cThat is a lot of additional renewals throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the increased Medicaid paperwork, the department faces cuts in federal-to-state funding, reduced support for transportation and child welfare, rising hotline costs, and criticism from Colorado about spending.<\/p>\n

The department also manages senior services, public transportation, health care, food assistance and child support services.<\/p>\n

Hargraves outlined the impact on Sept. 29 as officials work to finalize next year\u2019s proposed budget, which is due by Oct. 15, per Colorado law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cuts hit state office for health care policy and finance<\/div>\n

Hargraves cited a funding cut from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.<\/p>\n

\u201cServices that allow residents to qualify for Medicaid are administered through HCPF,\u201d she said. \u201cHCPF did reel back their allocation. They issue those allocations at the very end of June so that we can plan our fiscal year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hargraves attributed \u201clots of cuts\u201d to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were supposed to have (allocation numbers) to us by tomorrow, but they have told us they\u2019re not sure when they\u2019re going to be able to let us know the impacts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hargraves said HCPF cut rates for nonemergent medical transportation<\/a> \u2013 a service that helps people reach medical appointments. She added that HCPF is planning to hire a broker to manage NEMT Medicaid billing.<\/p>\n

She also said she is talking with the town of Dolores about funding support for senior services.<\/p>\n

\u2018A gigantic leap\u2019 in costs for hotline<\/div>\n

County officials discussed a call center contract for a state-mandated hotline<\/a> that allows residents to report abuse or neglect involving youths and adults.<\/p>\n

The contractor raised its rates since last year, Hargraves said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe received our annual contract for the hotline,\u201d she said. \u201cI was a little surprised to receive this contract because it was 28% higher than last year. That\u2019s a gigantic leap.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contract increased from nearly $12,000 last year to almost $16,000 this year, she said. Running a call center in-house would cost more, but building a regional center could be considered in the future.<\/p>\n

Hargraves said she asked the contractor for call log data to justify the increase. She received no data and was told \u201cthere wasn\u2019t wiggle room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern continues to be if it bumps up by 28%, we continue to see cuts. \u2026 Where do we come up with it?\u201d asked Commissioner Jim Candelaria.<\/p>\n

Colorado health official surprises local office<\/div>\n

A letter from the Joint Budget Committee<\/a> and Michelle Barnes, director of the Colorado Department of Human Services, regarding Temporary Assistance for Needy Families<\/a>, allocations and cost-saving measures caught Hargraves\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey indicated that counties weren\u2019t prioritizing TANF in reasonable and meaningful ways, which felt like a big generalization,\u201d Hargraves said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important conversations because as a department we\u2019re going to cut TANF contracts again this year. We have to. There\u2019s no question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hargraves said TANF dollars are essential to preventing youths from entering the child welfare system.<\/p>\n

She added that the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program is also underfunded because of new federal regulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal and state cuts create additional pressures ahead for county\u2019s ability to provide aid <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20113,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16279\/revisions\/20113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16279"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}