Category: Benefits & Retirement
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Presbyterian is ending most Medicare Advantage plans for 30,000 New Mexicans after a $59 million loss
Presbyterian Health Plan members in New Mexico are getting two different messages about their Medicare Advantage coverage, and the timing is what matters most. Nothing changes before January 2027 — same doctors, same drug coverage, same premiums for the rest of this year. But starting with the 2027 plan year, Presbyterian is dropping most of…
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A North Carolina medical center left Blue Cross Medicare Advantage in July and leaves UnitedHealthcare at year-end
If you get your care from CarolinaEast Medical Center in New Bern, North Carolina, and you’re on a Medicare Advantage plan, the hospital building and your own doctor’s office are no longer treated the same way by your insurance card. One lost its in-network status two months ago. The other is on a countdown that…
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Nine small-town hospital systems dropped Humana, Aetna or UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage this year
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…
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Most Mass General Brigham primary care doctors no longer take UnitedHealthcare or Blue Cross Medicare Advantage
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…
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Rhode Island patients kept a UnitedHealthcare plan after the hospitals left, and now the doctors are gone too
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…
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The smallest food stamp benefit becomes $25 a month when the new SNAP year begins October 1
Starting October 1, the smallest monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payment climbs by a dollar, from $24 to $25, as part of the federal government’s annual reset of SNAP’s dollar figures. The increase applies specifically to the one- and two-person households that qualify for the program’s minimum benefit rather than a payment calculated from their…
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Social Security is finishing off paper checks this year, and Treasury says a check is 16 times likelier to be stolen
Social Security says it plans to stop mailing paper checks to beneficiaries altogether this year, closing out a shift that began under federal law more than a year ago. For the shrinking number of retirees, spouses, and survivors who still get a check in the mailbox each month, that means the payment method itself is…
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Medicare Advantage plans are set to collect $13 billion more next year while insurers keep cutting plans
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…
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Molina is keeping only its dual-eligible Medicare members and shedding a $1 billion drug-plan business
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…
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UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members lose every Fairview doctor and hospital on January 1
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…
