Hospital systems and Medicare Advantage insurers broke off dozens of contracts in 2026, and each break carries the same practical risk for the patients caught in the middle: a plan card that still says one thing while the network behind it says another. When a system exits a network mid-year, enrollees typically keep their coverage…

Patients across the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota who carry a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage card are getting a direct instruction from their own hospital system: start looking at other plans now, because this one will not get them into a Fairview clinic much longer. The notice is not a rumor or a leaked memo. It…

A Medicare Advantage debit card meant to cover groceries, dental visits or over-the-counter items has, on some plans, worked like a running account, letting whatever a member did not spend follow the card into the next plan year. That practice ends under a federal rule finalized this spring. Beginning with 2027 coverage, the money loaded…

Two Julys in a row, Medicare Advantage insurers combed six months of claims data and sent enrollees a personalized letter listing which dental, vision or over-the-counter benefits sat untouched. That mailing is now optional, starting with the 2027 plan year. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services eliminated the requirement inside a broader deregulatory package…

Fifteen brand-name medicines used by roughly 5.3 million Medicare Part D enrollees are getting new, government-negotiated prices on January 1, 2027, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The new prices run from 38 percent to 85 percent below each drug’s 2024 list price and cover treatments for type 2 diabetes, asthma, several…

A cash discount at the pharmacy counter and a paid insurance claim can produce the same total on a receipt, but Medicare treats the two very differently behind the scenes. Federal consumer guidance spells out what happens when someone enrolled in Medicare uses TrumpRx, the government’s prescription discount portal, instead of running a purchase through…

A cancellation notice from a Medicare Advantage insurer rarely explains what it hands the recipient along with the bad news. Buried in that letter is a narrow, one-time right to buy a Medicare Supplement, known as Medigap, without answering a single health question — a right that disappears if the paperwork misses its deadline. The…

A letter announcing that a Medicare Advantage insurer is dropping a plan for next year does not run on the same clock as the ordinary fall sales pitch. Enrollees who only track the October 15 to December 7 sign-up window can assume that date is the hard stop for every coverage decision. Federal rules set…

Medicare’s drug benefit does not usually charge every enrollee the same flat rate for a prescription, regardless of income. One temporary federal arrangement does exactly that for a narrow group of weight-loss prescriptions, and the government’s own account of upcoming coverage changes confirms the rate is staying in place. The arrangement did not begin as…

A newly released federal audit shows how the private company that processes Medicare’s paperwork across much of the country let millions of dollars in incorrect nursing-home billing go through unchecked for a full year. Investigators reviewed a sample of the specific kind of Medicare Part B claims filed on behalf of people living in nursing…