Molina Healthcare has decided which half of its Medicare business to keep. The insurer will stop selling its standard Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plans starting with the 2027 plan year, walking away from roughly $1 billion in annual premiums, while doubling down on the $5 billion book of business it runs for people who qualify…

UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members who count on Fairview for their care are about to lose access to every clinic, hospital and doctor in the system. Fairview Health Services says it will stop scheduling those patients starting January 1, 2027, ending a Medicare Advantage relationship that has grown increasingly strained over billing and coverage disputes. Anyone…

Medicare Supplement, or Medigap, policies have a well-known catch: once you are past your one-time federal enrollment window, an insurer can normally deny you coverage or charge more based on your health. Two states pushed back on that rule this year, in different ways. New Mexico and West Virginia both now give existing Medigap holders…

Every Medicare Advantage plan with supplemental extras — dental cleanings, an eyewear allowance, a grocery card — has always counted on enrollees to notice, on their own, whether they were actually using what they paid into the plan for. A rule finalized earlier this year had been set to change that by forcing plans to…

About 2,500 people are getting a letter this fall that puts a number on a change most of them didn’t ask for: their Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare Advantage plan will no longer cover their regular doctor’s visits at Cooley Dickinson starting October 1. What they do have is a 90-day window to sort it…

In Clarion, Iowa, population under 3,000, the local hospital’s list of accepted Medicare Advantage insurers fits on an index card. Since the start of 2026, Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics has stopped seeing non-emergency patients whose coverage falls outside four insurers, a narrower list than almost any other hospital system tracked nationally this year. For…

Open enrollment for 2027 Medicare coverage closes December 7. A contract at one Coastal Carolina hospital closes 24 days after that. For Medicare Advantage members near New Bern, North Carolina, that gap between two calendar dates is the whole story: the deadline everyone is told to watch isn’t the one that actually decides whether their…

Millions of UnitedHealthcare members who have waited days for a doctor’s office to get a procedure cleared got a specific answer this week: about 1,700 procedure and diagnostic codes will no longer need that step, starting October 1. The change touches commercial, Medicare Advantage and Affordable Care Act plans alike, and it lands squarely in…

Tens of millions of Medicare Advantage enrollees carry a small plastic card loaded with an allowance for groceries, dental work, vision exams, or over-the-counter items. For years, many of those cards behaved like ordinary prepaid debit cards, swiping through checkout with little scrutiny over what actually landed in the cart. Two changes finalized by federal…

A contract dispute between one of Arkansas’s largest hospital systems and the state’s dominant health insurer is set to come to a head on September 1, and Medicare Advantage enrollees across central Arkansas are the ones with the most to lose if the two sides don’t reach a deal in time. CHI St. Vincent, part…