Providence Health Assurance says it is discontinuing all of its Medicare Supplement plans, and members’ current coverage runs only through March 31, 2027. Anyone who has not lined up a replacement policy by then drops to Original Medicare alone on April 1, with nothing to help pay the deductibles and coinsurance it leaves behind.
The notice comes from Providence’s status update for health plan members, which says Providence Health Assurance “will discontinue all Medicare Supplement plans” and that current coverage will remain in effect through March 31, 2027. Members are receiving individual notices with dates and comparison resources, and Providence tells them to begin reviewing their Medicare coverage options now to avoid a gap.
What changes on April 1, 2027
Medicare Supplement, often called Medigap, is the policy Providence says helps pay deductibles, coinsurance and other out-of-pocket costs. In its member questions and answers, Providence says members who do not choose a new plan will have Original Medicare beginning April 1, 2027, and will no longer have a Medicare Supplement policy to cover those costs.
Anyone with a Providence Health Assurance Medicare Supplement policy now has until March 31, 2027 to arrange replacement coverage that takes effect April 1. Providence says members may choose a Medicare Supplement plan from another insurance company or enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan, depending on their needs and enrollment periods. The two routes work differently, and which one is open depends on the timing rules below.
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Providence says a new Medicare Supplement plan must be effective April 1, 2027 to avoid a gap, so the start date of the replacement matters as much as the plan itself. A policy that begins in May or June would leave a stretch with only Original Medicare, where the patient pays the deductibles and coinsurance directly.
Why timing decides whether a new policy is easy to get
The federal Medicare site explains that the best time to buy a Medigap policy is the Medigap open enrollment period, the six-month stretch that starts the first day of the month a person is 65 or older and signed up for Part B. Outside that window, Medicare.gov says there is no federal guarantee that an insurance company will sell a Medigap policy. Insurers may also use medical underwriting, so a policy could cost more because of past or present health problems.
That matters for Providence members who have held their policy for years and are well past that first six months. A new insurer outside a guaranteed-issue situation can ask about health history, and the answers can affect both approval and price.
The same Medicare.gov page lists situations that carry guaranteed-issue rights, meaning an insurer must sell certain Medigap policies regardless of health. They include losing Medigap coverage through no fault of the policyholder, with the example of a company going bankrupt, and a Medicare Advantage plan that leaves Medicare or stops covering an area. Applications generally must be made no more than 63 days after coverage ends, and Medicare.gov advises keeping the letters that prove when coverage ended.
Providence’s update does not mention guaranteed-issue rights, and it does not say whether a discontinued policy triggers one. Medicare.gov says its answers cover federal rights only and that state law may add options, which a State Insurance Department can explain. Members who are unsure can ask Providence, a prospective insurer and the state department before they apply anywhere.
Where a Medicare Advantage plan fits, and where it does not
Providence’s other Medicare exit is a separate event. Its status update says Providence will not offer Medicare Advantage plans in 2027 or beyond, and those policies are discontinued effective January 1, 2027, three months before the Medicare Supplement coverage ends. A Providence Medicare Supplement policy and a Providence Medicare Advantage plan are two different products with two different end dates, and a notice about one says nothing about the other.
For anyone weighing Medicare Advantage as the replacement, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says Medicare’s annual enrollment runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, and that the Medicare Plan Finder on Medicare.gov shows premiums, costs and benefits for 2027 plans. Because Providence says the right choice depends on enrollment periods, a member who wants to join Medicare Advantage needs to confirm which period applies before dropping any existing coverage.
The scale of Providence’s retreat explains why many households are getting notices at once. An Oregon news report put Providence’s Oregon membership at 421,005, roughly one in 10 Oregon residents, with another 19,000 members in Washington, California and Montana. The report did not give a count for Medicare Supplement members, and said they would receive individual notices well ahead of any 2027 changes.
What to settle before the end of March
Providence directs members who want help comparing options to 1-800-MEDICARE, at 1-800-633-4227, and says questions about current coverage go to the number on the member ID card. Those calls are the starting point for confirming dates and comparing options, and Providence says each member is receiving an individual notice with dates and comparison resources.
The open questions are narrow and practical. Members need to know whether the notice they received creates a guaranteed-issue right, and which insurers in their state are selling Medigap plans effective April 1. The answer to the first question can change the cost of everything else.
With about five and a half months before coverage ends, there is time to compare, but the application windows are tied to dates, not to how quickly a decision is made. Anyone holding a Providence Medicare Supplement policy has a fixed March 31 end date and a replacement that needs to be in force the next day.
Replacing a Providence Medigap plan before March 31?
The detail that gets missed is the rights question: a Medigap buyer outside a guaranteed-issue situation can be asked health questions and charged more, and a gap after March 31 leaves deductibles and coinsurance unpaid by any supplement.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes Medigap guaranteed-issue rights when a Medicare Advantage plan leaves or a person returns to Original Medicare, with a call script, plus a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors.
Get the Medigap rights section and call script in the Decision Kit before the March 31 cutoff →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
