A one-time $90 Part B rebate starts reaching Original Medicare households on or around October 8, and nobody has to apply to get it. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services counts 20.8 million people who meet its tests, and the money moves on two tracks: direct deposits first, paper checks later in the month.…

A Medicare payment experiment finalized at the end of September arrives with a savings forecast that has a precise dollar sign on it: $177 million. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services attaches that number to the out-of-pocket costs patients are expected to avoid under its Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing model, called GLOBE.…

Humana has put a footprint on its 2027 Medicare Advantage business: approximately 2,600 counties across 45 states and Washington, D.C. The figure comes from the insurer’s own announcement on October 1, 2026, two weeks before Medicare’s annual enrollment period begins. It is a single number with nothing beside it to compare against, and that shapes…

Every Medicare Advantage plan that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota sells is being cancelled for 2027, and the insurer says new plans will be available to more than 80 percent of the people enrolled today. The company announced the restructuring in a newsroom release dated October 1, 2026. Medicare Open Enrollment, which opens…

A Medicare Advantage member whose hospital leaves the plan’s network may hold a second way out of the plan, and it is not the exit most members use. Medicare’s own guide to Medigap lists a network that “has a significant change” among four situations that carry a guaranteed right to buy a Medigap policy. The…

Within a single day, three of the largest names in Medicare Advantage put out their 2027 plan announcements: UnitedHealthcare, Humana and Wellcare. Each release is upbeat, and each runs on national totals. None of the three, on a close read, says a word about members whose plans are ending or who will lose their current…

October 2, 2026 was the date by which Medicare Advantage insurers had to notify members whose plans end after December 31. A federal rule sets the deadline at 90 calendar days before a non-renewal takes effect, and it falls 13 days before Open Enrollment opens on October 15. Whether a letter has reached the mailbox…

Two Sun Belt states are moving against the national tide in Medicare Advantage. Alabama goes from 98 plans in 2026 to 113 in 2027, and Arizona goes from 133 to 148, a gain of 15 each. The counts come from the federal agency that runs Medicare, in state-by-state fact sheets released with the 2027 plan…

“Medicare Part B patients and American taxpayers have paid significantly more for prescription medications than people in comparable countries,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said when the agency announced a new mandatory payment model on September 30. The model, called GLOBE, reaches about a quarter of people with Original Medicare, and the rule that creates…

Page 12 of the Medicare & You 2027 handbook carries a sentence that a reader hunting for next year’s costs will not want to find: “The 2027 premium amounts, drug costs, and income limits weren’t available at the time of printing.” The handbook goes to Medicare households each fall, and Open Enrollment opens on October…