Millions of seniors on a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan could get a letter this fall that they do not want to ignore. The insurer is weighing whether to pull out of Medicare Advantage in dozens of counties for 2027, and if your county is on the list, your coverage would not simply continue. The good…

For older adults who take expensive medications, one of the most important numbers in Medicare is the yearly ceiling on what they can be forced to pay out of pocket for prescriptions. That cap is set to rise to $2,400 in 2027, up from $2,100 in 2026. It is worth understanding not as a scary…

For about 11,000 older Minnesotans, a routine Medicare Advantage plan is about to stop working the way it always has. Fairview Health Services, the Minneapolis-based system behind M Health Fairview hospitals and clinics, has told patients it will stop accepting UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans starting January 1, 2027. That leaves affected enrollees with a decision…

A letter that reads like bad news might actually be a door opening. When a hospital system or a Medicare Advantage plan parts ways and you lose your coverage through no choice of your own, federal rules can hand you a limited-time right to buy a Medigap policy without answering a single health question. Missing…

A Social Security raise feels smaller once Medicare takes its cut, and next year that cut is projected to grow again. Federal projections point to the standard Medicare Part B premium climbing to $209.50 a month in 2027. It is not yet official, but for retirees trying to gauge how much of their cost-of-living increase…

Families encountering Medicare’s new risk-based nursing-home survey marker need more than a large number. They need the exact group covered, the present legal status and the next useful step for Medicare’s new risk-based nursing-home survey marker. The current primary record provides that map for Medicare’s new risk-based nursing-home survey marker. Five-star status alone is not…

A new primary record puts Medicare’s mandatory hospice coverage addendum into practical household terms. Timing, eligibility and remedy determine whether Medicare’s mandatory hospice coverage addendum changes a real budget. The official details of Medicare’s mandatory hospice coverage addendum are now clear enough to verify. Every hospice election will require the addendum The Centers for Medicare…

The financial consequence of CMS’s survey of what hospitals pay for 340B drugs is easier to miss than the large number. An official source now fixes the amount, date and status for CMS’s survey of what hospitals pay for 340B drugs. Reading the official pieces together shows what a consumer can do about CMS’s survey…

A contract dispute between a hospital system and an insurer can become a household budget problem overnight. Nearly 380,000 Anthem members in Virginia are now facing that possibility, although their present coverage and in-network rates have not changed. The practical job is to prepare for a split without treating a negotiating notice as a finished…

UnitedHealthcare has extended in-network access to ECU Health’s hospitals through August 7. The day after that, those hospitals become out of network for the insurer’s commercial, Medicare Advantage and Individual Family Plan members across eastern North Carolina. What makes this one unusual is that the contract is not ending in a single moment. Different parts…