Medicare Advantage Plan Exits for 2027: What Home Health Agencies Should Watch

Medicare Advantage plan exits are reshaping the 2027 coverage map, and home health agencies will feel it well before January. UnitedHealthcare confirmed that about 390,000 members are in plans being discontinued for 2027, Humana has announced cuts affecting roughly 600,000 enrollees, and analysts reviewing new government data found that Aetna and Centene are also shrinking their footprints, according to Bloomberg reporting summarized by Quartz. The annual enrollment period opened Oct. 15 and runs through Dec. 7, which means many patients on service today are making coverage decisions right now.

What Medicare Advantage plan exits mean for patients on service

UnitedHealthcare sent non-renewal notices dated Oct. 2 to affected members. Per the insurer's provider FAQ, those members can choose another Medicare Advantage plan between Oct. 15 and Dec. 31 for a Jan. 1 start. If they do nothing, they return to Original Medicare on Jan. 1 and get a special election period through Feb. 28, 2027 to pick a new plan. As physician Ed Wu wrote in McKnight's Home Care on Oct. 16, this kind of churn rarely shows up as a Medicare question at the agency. It shows up as a start of care pushed back while a family hunts for an authorization, or a service that quietly stops being covered when a plan year ends.

Network and authorization changes are part of the story

Plan exits are not the only shift. In Florida, for example, Aetna will take over network management, claims payment and prior authorization for Medicare Advantage home health services from Carelon on Jan. 1, 2027. Agencies without an Aetna contract would be out of network for those members unless they sign one, and claims for dates of service on or after Jan. 1 go directly to Aetna. Changes like this are easy to miss in a busy fall, and they tend to surface first as a denied claim or a stalled referral in January.

Practical steps before January

Start by identifying which current patients are in plans that are exiting or changing hands, and flag their episodes that will cross into 2027. Confirm your network status with every plan those patients are likely to choose, and note where authorizations will need to be requested again under a new payer. Coordinate with referral sources so start of care dates in early January are not caught off guard. CareSync® can help here by keeping scheduled and completed visits side by side, so it is clear which visits are planned across the transition and which were actually delivered under each plan.

Fall coverage churn is a recurring industry pattern, but 2027 looks larger than most years. Agencies that map their exposure now will spend less of January untangling coverage. We are also quietly building something invite-only for home health professionals who want to compare notes on developments like this one, and we hope to share more soon.