The list of hospital systems ending some or all of their Medicare Advantage contracts has grown to 29 in 2026, according to a running tally maintained by Becker’s Hospital Review, with three names newly added to the published count this month. The dispute driving most of the exits is familiar: hospitals say insurers are denying too many prior authorization requests and paying claims too slowly, while insurers say hospitals are asking for reimbursement increases they cannot absorb. For the more than half of Medicare beneficiaries now enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, each new name on the list is a signal to check whether a trusted hospital or doctor is still covered.
How a Contract Dispute Becomes a Coverage Gap
Providers dropping Medicare Advantage plans most often cite prior authorization denials and slow reimbursement as the reason, while in other cases the insurer is the one ending the contract, according to Becker’s Hospital Review’s 2026 tracker, which has followed these breakups since 2023. Medicare Advantage now covers more than half of all Medicare-eligible beneficiaries, so a single contract ending can affect tens of thousands of people who chose a plan specifically because it included their local hospital system.
The tracker is explicitly described as incomplete, covering only “contract breaks effective in or announced in 2026” that Becker’s has been able to confirm through hospital statements, insurer announcements or local news coverage. That means the true number of Medicare Advantage network disruptions this year is almost certainly higher than 29, since smaller or less-publicized contract changes may not make the list at all. Some of the terminations stem from national contract renegotiations between an insurer and a health system’s parent company, while others are purely local decisions by a single hospital or physician group, which is part of why the reasons behind any two exits on the list can look very different up close.
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The Three Newest Names on the List
Naples Comprehensive Health in Florida will be out of network with Centene’s Wellcare and HCSC’s HealthSpring Medicare Advantage plans at the end of 2026, according to the health system’s own contracted-insurance-plans page. The change affects two of the larger Medicare Advantage carriers operating in southwest Florida, a region with one of the highest concentrations of Medicare Advantage enrollment in the country.
Oklahoma-based Norman Regional Health System already went out of network with Aetna Medicare Advantage in August and confirmed it will also exit UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage network in October, according to an update the health system posted to its own website. Losing two major carriers in consecutive months leaves Norman Regional patients on either plan needing to find a new in-network hospital system for non-emergency care within a short window.
New Bern, North Carolina-based CarolinaEast Medical Center took a more staggered path: the hospital itself exited Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina’s Medicare Advantage network on July 1, while CarolinaEast Physicians, the system’s separate physician group, remains in-network, according to Becker’s Payer coverage of the split. CarolinaEast is also set to leave UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage network at the end of 2026, meaning patients there face two separate deadlines with two separate insurers within the same year.
What a Beneficiary Should Check Before Enrollment Season
Anyone enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan through one of the insurers named on Becker’s list has a practical reason to act before Medicare’s fall enrollment window opens in mid-October: confirming, directly with the plan or the hospital’s billing office, whether a preferred hospital or physician group is still listed as in-network for the coming year. Provider directories can lag behind an actual contract termination, and a plan’s written notice of the change may arrive later than a hospital’s own public announcement.
Beneficiaries who miss the fall window are not entirely out of options. Anyone already enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan gets a second chance to switch plans or return to Original Medicare between January 1 and March 31, a separate window known as the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, though it does not allow switching from Original Medicare into a new Medicare Advantage plan the way the fall window does.
Some of the health systems on the list, including Genesis Healthcare System in Ohio and Sentara Health in Virginia, have framed their upcoming exits as contingent on reaching “fair new agreements” before a year-end deadline, meaning those contracts could still be renewed or could still lapse depending on negotiations underway. That uncertainty leaves affected members without a firm answer, even as they are asked to decide during open enrollment whether to switch plans over a network change that has not technically happened yet.
Becker’s own count is a floor, not a ceiling, since it captures only the breakups the publication has been able to confirm through public statements. With several of the listed disputes still unresolved heading into the final months of 2026, and insurers finalizing their 2027 provider networks in the weeks immediately following open enrollment, the number of health systems dropping Medicare Advantage plans is more likely to keep climbing than to hold steady at 29 through the end of the year.
This article was drafted with AI assistance and edited for accuracy.
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