Updated: What to do if your Medicare Advantage plan is discontinuing
Finding out that your health plan is being discontinued is very upsetting and selecting new coverage can feel overwhelming. If you’ve recently received a discontinuation notice from your Medicare Advantage plan, you have several choices to make.
Tuesday, Oct. 15 — Saturday, Dec. 7 is Medicare’s annual Open Enrollment period and your first opportunity to select new coverage. During this time, you can:
- Select a different Medicare Advantage plan. See what’s available by county.
- Get a stand-alone prescription drug plan (Medicare Part D) (this automatically signs you up for Original Medicare. See available plans.
- Get a Medicare supplement plan (Medigap). See available plans.
You can also explore your 2025 options at Medicare.gov.
Our Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) program has Medicare programs across the state and individual counseling sessions. See what’s planned in your area on our Medicare counseling and events calendar. You may need an appointment for a one-on-one session.
Unfortunately, approximately, 60,000–80,000 people received notice last week that they will need to find a new Medicare Advantage plan. We’re already getting a high volume of requests for help and our volunteers are going to be extra busy this year. We encourage you to check the calendar for events near you or if you’re having trouble making a SHIBA appointment, to reach out to Medicare.gov directly.
Most importantly, please don’t wait to start thinking about your options. We’re expecting to be extremely busy during the next several weeks. Your Medicare and You Handbook can help get you started, too.
Our SHIBA program offers free, unbiased Medicare help in local communities across the state. For help from SHIBA call our Insurance Consumer Hotline at 1–800–562–6900 and ask to be connected with your local SHIBA office or fill out our contact form.
If you can’t wait to get started or need help right away, contact Medicare directly.
