Sixteen Medicare Advantage plans end in Larimer County. Is yours one?

Larimer County had 57 Medicare Advantage plans to choose from this year. For 2027 it has 46.

That number comes from Medicare's own list of plans for each county, and it hides more change than it shows. Sixteen of this year's plans are ending here or leaving the county. Four more are being folded into other plans. A few new ones are arriving. In October, more than 3,000 people in Larimer County were enrolled in a plan that won't be back in January.

If you're one of them, your coverage is fine through December 31. What you can't do this year is let the plan renew and stop thinking about it.

Which companies' plans are ending

These are the companies with at least one Larimer County plan that ends on December 31 or leaves the county:

• Aetna: four plans
• Select Health: four plans
• HealthSpring: three plans
• UnitedHealthcare: two of its AARP plans
• Clear Spring Health: two plans, and it leaves the county altogether
• Kaiser Permanente: one plan

Every one of these companies except Clear Spring Health still offers other plans here in 2027. So a company name on this list doesn't mean your plan is ending, and a company missing from it doesn't mean your plan is unchanged. Humana and UnitedHealthcare are also folding some plans into others, which we come to below.

How to tell if yours is ending

Look for a letter from your plan. A plan that is ending has to write to every member at least 90 days before the end of the year, so yours went out by early October. It says your plan is ending or leaving your area, and it lists the other plans you could choose.

That letter isn't the same as the thick booklet every plan sends in the fall about next year's changes. If you got only the booklet, your plan continues, and the ordinary checks apply: see what to check during Annual Enrollment.

If you can't find either one, call the number on your member card and ask a plain question: is my plan available in Larimer County in 2027?

Two traps in this year's list

The company staying doesn't mean your plan is. HealthSpring is closing three plans here and opening new plans with the same names, and Select Health is doing the same with one. Members aren't moved into the new plans. If your letter says your plan is ending, believe the letter, even when you see the same plan name in next year's list.

A merged plan is a different plan. If your plan is being folded into another one, you'll be moved automatically and you won't get the ending letter. You'll get the booklet instead, describing a plan you didn't pick. Read it as if you were choosing it for the first time: doctors, drugs, pharmacy, and what you'd pay in a bad year.

What happens if you do nothing

On January 1 you'll be in Original Medicare. That keeps Part A and Part B, so hospitals and doctors who take Medicare will still see you.

What you lose is everything the Advantage plan was adding. There's no drug coverage unless you join a drug plan, so your prescriptions are paid at full price. There's no yearly limit on what you pay, because Original Medicare by itself doesn't have one. And there's no supplement policy to cover the 20% that Part B leaves to you.

Nobody should end up there by accident.

Your two roads

Choose another Medicare Advantage plan. You can do this until December 7 and start January 1 with no gap. Check your doctors and hospital against the 2027 network, and every drug at your dose against the new plan's drug list, before you pick.

Go to Original Medicare with a supplement and a drug plan. Normally this is the hard road in Colorado, because a supplement company can ask about your health and say no. A plan that ends changes that. The letter gives you the right to buy certain Medicare Supplement plans with no health questions, for six months from the day your coverage ends, and you can apply now so the new policy starts January 1. Keep the letter: you send it with the application. We wrote more about what that letter does for you.

A merged plan usually doesn't open that door, because your coverage continues as a different plan. Ask us before you count on it either way.

Medigap and Part D run on different rules

The six months covers a Medicare Supplement policy. It doesn't cover a Part D drug plan, which has its own enrollment deadlines.

So if you're going back to Original Medicare, set up the drug plan before your Advantage plan ends, and you won't have a gap. Going 63 days or more in a row without drug coverage that counts can mean a late enrollment penalty.

If you miss December 7

Because your plan is ending, you get extra time: you can still choose a new plan from December 8 through the last day of February.

Treat that as a safety net, not a deadline. Every week you spend in Original Medicare without a drug plan is a week of prescriptions at full price, and a doctor's office that sees you in January will bill whatever coverage you have that day.

If you have Medicaid or get Extra Help with drug costs, your choices are different, and in some ways wider. Tell us when you call.

How we can help

Book a review call, by phone or on video. Have the letter with you, your doctors' names, and your prescriptions with their doses. We'll check them against next year's plans from the companies we represent, and look at the supplement road too, so you can compare the two side by side.

What to check during Annual Enrollment · Book a review