With Medicare open enrollment fast approaching, a local retiree advocate is warning Villagers to pay close attention to their mail, as millions of seniors nationwide are expected to have their healthcare plans discontinued in 2027.<\/p>\n
Jim Bodenner, president of the Villages Chapter of the National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN), said enrollees in Medicare Advantage, Medigap and Medicare Part D plans are currently receiving their Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) letters. While these documents typically outline routine adjustments to premiums, deductibles or copays, some seniors will receive a notice that their plan is not being renewed.<\/p>\n
The scale of the expected cancellations is significant. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimates that about 2.9 million Medicare Advantage enrollees will not have their plans renewed next year. UnitedHealthcare is expected to discontinue plans affecting 1.1 million seniors, while Humana plans to shut down coverage impacting roughly 600,000 seniors across the country.<\/p>\n
Bodenner warned that some insurers expect to \u201ccross-walk\u201d dropped enrollees into different plans offered by the same company. However, he cautioned that these new plans will likely carry higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs.<\/p>\n
For those facing non-renewal, federal law requires insurance companies to include a Guaranteed Issue Right (GIR) and a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) qualification notice. A GIR prohibits insurers from denying coverage or overcharging an applicant based on pre-existing health conditions, while an SEP allows seniors a designated window to shop for a new plan.<\/p>\n
To ensure compliance, NRLN President Bill Kadereit sent a letter earlier this month to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. demanding the federal government enforce the rule requiring insurers to explicitly inform participants of their rights.<\/p>\n
If a Villager\u2019s plan is not continuing in 2027 and the notice does not include GIR and SEP information, Bodenner advises contacting the insurance provider immediately. Seniors can also reach out to their health insurance agent, call Medicare at 1-800-633-4227 or contact the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) at 1-877-839-2675.<\/p>\n
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will post 2027 plans and premiums at Medicare.gov on Oct. 1. The Medicare Annual Enrollment Period runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Medicare open enrollment fast approaching, a local retiree advocate is warning Villagers to pay close attention to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253,1342,361061],"class_list":["post-854973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-medicare","tag-national-retiree-legislative-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}