Colorado Springs Senior AdvisorWho licenses and inspects nursing homes in Colorado Springs?
CDPHE licenses every nursing facility in El Paso and Teller counties, and for homes certified to bill Medicare or Medicaid it also performs the federal inspections on behalf of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which sets the federal standards, ratings and penalties.
CDPHE licenses 21 nursing facilities in El Paso and Teller counties with 1,929 beds, and CMS rates 21 of them, 8 at four or five stars overall (Care Compare data as of October 1, 2026). CDPHE's records label most of them SNF/NF dual certified, meaning a home takes both Medicare (short rehab stays) and Medicaid (long-term care); a few are Medicare-only skilled nursing facilities or distinct parts of larger campuses.
How often are certified nursing homes inspected?
Federal rules call for a standard health survey of each certified home on average about once a year, never more than about 15 months apart, plus complaint investigations and life safety inspections whenever needed.
Results feed CMS's health inspection star rating, which compares a home with others in Colorado. Our nursing home pages show the latest standard survey date, the deficiency count, fines and payment denials from CMS, and the CDPHE inspection and occurrence counts side by side.
What happens when a Colorado Springs nursing home is cited?
The home must submit a plan of correction; serious or repeated problems can bring federal civil money penalties, denial of payment for new admissions, more frequent inspections or, for homes with a long record of serious problems, CMS's Special Focus Facility program.
Penalties show up in Care Compare for three years. A home with a large fine is not necessarily unsafe today, but you should ask what happened, what changed and who is accountable now. CMS also marks homes cited for abuse with an icon, which our pages repeat when it appears.
How should a family use Care Compare for a Colorado Springs nursing home?
Start with the health inspection rating and the actual deficiencies, then look at nurse staffing hours, staff turnover and the quality measures for long-stay or short-stay residents depending on what your parent needs.
Short-term rehab after a hospital stay calls for a different home than long-term care. Medicare-only homes concentrate on rehab, and some long-stay residents do better in a smaller home closer to family. Visit, ask for the latest statement of deficiencies, and talk to the ombudsman, who visits every nursing home in the region.
Side by side
| Nursing home oversight includes | It does not include | |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing | A CDPHE nursing facility license | A city or county care license |
| Federal rules | CMS standards, inspections and penalties for certified homes | Rules for assisted living residences |
| Ratings | CMS five-star ratings, refreshed monthly | Ratings from us or from reviews |
| Payment | Medicare for short skilled stays, Medicaid for long stays | Medicare for long-term custodial care |
Drawn from 6 CCR 1011-1 Chapter 7, CDPHE and HCPF publications, CareScout, CMS, the VA and the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging; our editorial standards explain how we check them.
