Nine community and county hospital systems have walked away from a Medicare Advantage contract with Humana, Aetna or UnitedHealthcare so far this year, according to a running tally kept by Becker’s Hospital Review plus one small-market system confirmed independently. For patients in a big metro area, that usually means driving to a different hospital across…

Losing a primary care doctor is not the same problem as losing a hospital, and that distinction sits at the center of Mass General Brigham’s latest Medicare Advantage decision. Since January 1, 2026, most primary care doctors across the health system’s Eastern Massachusetts practices have been out of network for Medicare Advantage plans sold by…

Rhode Islanders who stuck with their UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan last year specifically to keep seeing a Brown University Health doctor are now finding that the doctor is gone from the network too. Brown Health’s hospitals left UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage network in July 2025; as of July 1, 2026, the health system’s outpatient physician offices…

The federal government has finalized how much it will pay private Medicare Advantage insurers for next year, and the total is bigger than most of the plans it funds. That increase is landing at the same time several of the country’s largest insurers are pulling Medicare Advantage plans out of counties across the country, shrinking…

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…