Sharp Health Plan, the San Diego insurer, is ending its individual Medicare Advantage plans, and coverage under them runs out on Dec. 31, 2026. Members of those plans have to choose and enroll in something new for 2027, because Sharp says the old coverage does not carry over. Employer group retiree plans run by Sharp are not part of the exit and continue. For San Diego County retirees, the split decides whether anything changes on Jan. 1: people who bought a Sharp plan on their own are leaving, while people covered through a former employer or union are staying put.
Individual plans end, group retiree plans stay
Sharp posted the change on a member notice page that shows a last-updated date of Oct. 3, 2026. The notice says Sharp “has decided to stop offering Individual Medicare Advantage plans due to changes in the Medicare market.” It gives no enrollment figure and names no executive. The insurer’s homepage now carries a banner headed “Individual Medicare Members: Important Updates” that points to the same notice, so the change is meant to be hard to miss for current members.
Group coverage is a separate product. Sharp’s notice says it will keep serving employer group retiree plans, including CalPERS, SDPEBA, Teamsters, the San Diego Electrical Health & Welfare Trust and Sharp HealthCare retirees. Anyone who gets Medicare Advantage through one of those sponsors should not expect a change from this announcement, though the sponsor, not Sharp, decides next year’s benefits. A member who is unsure which kind of plan they hold can check the plan name on the member card or call Sharp at 1-855-562-8853 (TTY 711).
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit is paid, optional help for members whose plan is leaving, with a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors and a provider call script for asking each doctor’s office which plans it takes.
Open the Decision Kit to compare 2027 plans against Sharp doctors →
Sharp doctors and the end of 2026
Keeping a doctor is the part of this change with the least certainty. The member notice tells people who want to stay with Sharp physicians to visit sharp.com/medicare to see which plans Sharp HealthCare will accept in 2027. That page, from the health system, says only that Sharp accepts individual Medicare Advantage plans from Sharp Health Plan through the end of 2026. It does not list which plans the health system will take after that date.
The same page says Sharp HealthCare also takes individual Medicare Advantage plans from UnitedHealthcare and sends visitors to that insurer’s website for specifics. For questions about the health system’s side, it lists a phone line, 1-800-827-4277, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and an online chat. It names no spokesperson and gives no figure for how many Sharp Health Plan members are affected.
The result is a gap members have to close themselves. The insurer that is leaving says to ask the health system, and the health system’s page points to one named alternative and a phone line. A plan directory that lists a Sharp hospital does not settle whether a specific doctor is covered, so a call to that doctor’s office is the most direct check.
If no new plan is chosen
Sharp’s notice is direct about the default. Members who do not pick another Medicare Advantage plan fall back to Original Medicare, the federal program run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, with no Medicare Advantage coverage attached. Original Medicare covers hospital stays and doctor visits through Parts A and B, but it has no annual out-of-pocket cap and no built-in drug coverage, which members would have to add separately through a Part D plan.
Medicare’s rules also give people a second chance. Under its special enrollment rules, a person whose plan’s contract with Medicare is not renewed can switch between December 8 and the last day of February of the following year. Medicare describes that window separately from the annual fall open enrollment, which runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 7 and produces coverage starting Jan. 1. The notice from Sharp does not spell out any of these dates.
Returning to Original Medicare brings a different decision about supplemental coverage. Medicare says a person whose Medicare Advantage plan leaves Medicare or stops serving the area has guaranteed issue rights to buy a Medigap policy, meaning insurers cannot turn the applicant down or charge more over health problems. The window runs from 60 days before the plan coverage ends to no more than 63 days after, and the right applies only to people who switch to Original Medicare rather than another Medicare Advantage plan.
Medigap plans are sold by private insurers in each state, and Medicare lists Plans A, B, C, D, F, G, K and L among those covered by the right. State law can lengthen the protection in some circumstances, according to Medicare, which sends people to their state insurance department for the details. Sharp’s notice says nothing about Medigap, so the rule comes from federal guidance rather than from the insurer leaving.
Choosing a 2027 plan before December 7
The free route starts with Medicare’s own tool. Medicare.gov’s Plan Finder lets people enter their drugs and pharmacy and compare the Medicare Advantage and Part D plans offered where they live. Medicare’s helpline, 1-800-633-4227, is the number Sharp’s notice itself lists for questions about Medicare.
Before comparing premiums, members should have three things in hand: every prescription with its dose, the full names of each doctor and specialist, and the hospital used most often. A plan that looks cheaper loses its advantage if one cardiologist is out of network. Sharp’s notice says calls routed to a broker can take one to two business days to be returned, which matters with a Dec. 7 close.
The broader trend explains why the choice is harder this year. Sharp is one of several health-system-linked insurers leaving Medicare Advantage for 2027, and its own notice cites changes in the Medicare market as the reason. A member who moves to another insurer should ask whether that plan’s contract with Sharp’s doctors runs through 2027, and by what date the doctor’s office will confirm it in writing.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit is optional paid help next to Plan Finder, with a provider call script for each doctor’s office and the Open Enrollment calendar for the Oct. 15 to Dec. 7 window.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Money Overview’s editorial team.
