Mass Advantage, the Medicare Advantage plan run out of Worcester, Massachusetts, will stop covering anyone on January 1, 2027. The plan says it did not submit a bid to Medicare for the 2027 plan year, so it will close to new members and to people already enrolled. Mass Advantage blames rising costs, lower reimbursement rates and regulatory uncertainty. The plan sold coverage only in Worcester County, which means every current member now has to find a different plan or return to Original Medicare before the new year.
Members who get a closure notice from Mass Advantage are not choosing between a renewal and a change. Their plan will no longer exist after December 31, so the real choice is among another Medicare Advantage plan in Worcester County, which bundles hospital, doctor and often drug coverage through a private insurer, or Original Medicare, the federal program, usually paired with a separate drug plan and sometimes a Medigap supplement. The right answer depends on which doctors, hospitals and prescriptions each option covers and what each one costs for those particular needs.
Comparing replacements for a closing plan comes down to cost, drugs and doctors, side by side. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit is a paid guide that includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, plus a prescription-by-plan comparison.
Get the plan-by-plan cost calculator for replacing Mass Advantage →
What Mass Advantage announced
The closure notice on the Mass Advantage website says the decision followed “significant changes in the Medicare landscape, increasing costs, lower reimbursement rates and growing regulatory uncertainty.” It states that the plan “will close for both new and existing members effective January 1, 2027.” The plan lists a member line at (844) 554-0514, TTY 711, staffed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week from October 1 through March 31.
Mass Advantage is part of Worcester-based UMass Memorial Health, according to Becker’s Payer Issues, which counted it among 12 insurers leaving Medicare Advantage for 2027. The health system describes the plan as one designed with the help of UMass Memorial Health physicians for Medicare beneficiaries living in Worcester County. A plan built around one health system’s doctors makes the replacement question sharper, because other plans may handle those physicians and hospitals differently.
No member count has been announced, and the notice names no spokesperson. The plan’s website also points members to the Medicare Ombudsman, the federal office that handles Medicare rights and complaint questions, and to the member line above. Because the notice gives no mailing schedule, members who have not heard from the plan can call that number directly to confirm what happens to their coverage and their claims after January 1.
The Open Enrollment window and the December 8 backstop
Medicare’s annual Open Enrollment runs October 15 through December 7. During those weeks, people can join, drop or switch Medicare Advantage and drug plans, and the new coverage starts January 1. Medicare.gov says the plan must receive the request to join by December 7, so the enrollment date, not the date coverage starts, is the deadline that matters for a plan that ends December 31.
Medicare also keeps a safety net for people whose plan’s contract is not renewed. The special enrollment period page lists a window from December 8 to the last day of February for that situation. Members who miss December 7 are therefore not shut out, and the February deadline gives a second chance to move from Original Medicare, or from a plan picked in haste, into a better fit.
Medicare.gov adds that a member who does not pick a new Medicare Advantage plan before the old one ends can end up back in Original Medicare. Original Medicare works differently from a bundled plan: drug coverage comes only from a separate Part D plan, and the deductibles and coinsurance that a Medigap policy covers are the member’s own unless a supplement is bought. A person who lands in Original Medicare by default, without choosing a drug plan or supplement, may face costs that a Medicare Advantage plan handled inside one premium.
Medigap rights if Original Medicare is the pick
For members leaning toward Original Medicare, Medicare.gov describes guaranteed issue rights for Medigap, the private supplement that covers Original Medicare’s deductibles and coinsurance. When a Medicare Advantage plan leaves Medicare or stops serving an area, the right to buy a policy opens 60 days before the coverage ends and runs to no more than 63 days after. During that time an insurer in the state must sell any Medigap policy it offers, with no health screening, in Plans A, B, C, D, F, G, K or L.
Two conditions come with that right. It applies only to people who switch to Original Medicare, not to those who enroll in another Medicare Advantage plan, and the Medigap coverage cannot begin until the Mass Advantage coverage ends. Medicare.gov also says the rights may last an extra 12 months in certain circumstances and directs people to their State Insurance Department. Within that window an insurer cannot turn an applicant away over health history, which makes it the main chance to buy a supplement without screening.
Replacing Mass Advantage coverage before December 7
The free official route is Medicare’s Plan Finder, which lists the Medicare Advantage and drug plans offered in a ZIP code. Anyone who uses it needs the full list of prescriptions with doses, the names of every doctor and hospital in regular use, and the current Mass Advantage member card. Medicare’s help line, 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), answers questions about the choice between Medicare Advantage and Original Medicare.
The step that most often decides the choice is confirming that a doctor takes the specific plan, not just the insurer’s name, because networks differ from plan to plan within the same company. Members who have relied on UMass Memorial physicians should ask each replacement plan whether those doctors and the hospital are in network for 2027, and ask the doctor’s office directly as well. A drug list should be checked plan by plan for coverage tier and cost, since formularies change every January.
Two dates frame the decision: December 7, the last day to enroll for January 1 coverage, and the end of February, when the special enrollment window for a non-renewed plan closes. Mass Advantage says the plan ends for everyone on January 1, 2027, so the Open Enrollment weeks are the main chance to arrive at the new year with coverage already chosen and the doctors confirmed.
A provider call script and the Open Enrollment calendar in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit are built for exactly this job of checking doctors and pinning down dates, and the paid kit sits beside the free Medicare Plan Finder rather than replacing it.
Click here to get the Open Enrollment Decision Kit for replacing Mass Advantage coverage →
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Money Overview’s editorial team.
