Kettering Health, the Dayton-based nonprofit system with 14 medical centers across western Ohio, will not renew its contract with Anthem’s Medicare Advantage plans, and the change takes effect January 1, 2027. Patients on those plans can keep using Kettering through December 31, 2026. After that, Kettering would be out of network for them.
Kettering announced the decision on October 6, 2026, nine days before Medicare’s annual enrollment period opened. The system’s release says the change covers Anthem Medicare Advantage plans, and names Anthem MyCare among them.
What Kettering says Anthem would not fix
Kettering says Anthem did not offer terms that “meaningfully addressed administrative and operational burdens.” The system also points to growing shortfalls from claim denials and payment reductions, and says Anthem’s reimbursement has stayed well below traditional Medicare and inflation.
That is Kettering’s account of the talks. Anthem’s side is not in the release, and the system has not said how many of its patients carry the plans being dropped. Kettering says it operates more than 120 outpatient locations in addition to the 14 medical centers, and that Kettering Health Medical Group has more than 700 board-certified providers, so the reach of the change across the region is wide.
Who has to act, and by when
Anyone in the Dayton area with an Anthem Medicare Advantage plan who sees Kettering doctors or uses its hospitals now has a choice to make before the year ends. Kettering says the annual enrollment period runs from October 15 through December 7, 2026, and that changes made in that window take effect January 1, 2027.
The practical question is narrow. A person who wants to stay with Kettering needs a 2027 plan that includes it, and a person who wants to stay with Anthem needs to accept that Kettering would be outside the plan’s network.
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Kettering says it “remains committed to patients with these plans” and is helping them move to coverage that allows uninterrupted care. The release does not describe any exception for patients in the middle of treatment, such as chemotherapy or recovery from surgery, so that is a question for the care team and the plan before January.
Medicare’s own plan finder is the free official place to see which plans are sold in a given ZIP code. It lists plan costs and drug coverage, but a plan’s network can change, so the hospital system should be confirmed with the plan itself before enrolling.
Kettering’s third Medicare Advantage exit in two years
Anthem is not the first insurer Kettering has left. Becker’s Hospital Review reports that Kettering also dropped Humana and Devoted Health Medicare Advantage plans for 2026.
A tracker of 2027 network changes lists the Kettering and Anthem split as a formal non-renewal covering Anthem Medicare Advantage, including MyCare, with the January 1, 2027 date. For people who joined an Anthem plan after a previous Kettering exit, the pattern makes network questions worth asking every fall.
What Kettering will still accept
The system says it will keep accepting traditional Medicare and several other Medicare Advantage plans. Original Medicare does not use a plan network, so a person who moves to it would not be limited to the doctors a private insurer contracts with. It carries different cost rules, though, and those depend on the person’s drugs, supplemental coverage and health needs.
Kettering has not published a list of the other Medicare Advantage plans it accepts in the release. Patients are told to expect a letter. The system says it will write to people with Anthem Medicare Advantage plans, and that it is working with RetireMed, a local Medicare advisory group, which will provide free, personalized guidance during the enrollment period.
One detail separates this story from a typical insurance dispute. Kettering is the party ending the contract, not Anthem, so members cannot count on the insurer to reopen talks before the enrollment period closes. Whatever happens in negotiations, the December 7 date does not move, and the plan a person holds on that day is the one that applies in January.
Questions worth asking before December 7
For any replacement plan, the questions come in a short order. Is Kettering in the plan’s 2027 network, including the specific doctor and not just the hospital? Are the person’s prescriptions covered, and at what price? What does the plan charge for a hospital stay or a specialist visit?
Those answers come from the plan, not from a hospital’s marketing. People who want a human to walk through them can call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), which Medicare says is open around the clock, or reach a local counselor through the State Health Insurance Assistance Program, which offers Medicare counseling at no cost.
Kettering’s media contact for the announcement is Claire Myree, senior public relations specialist, at (937) 762-1077. Patients with questions about their own care are better served by their doctor’s office, which can say which plans it will be in network with after January 1.
The date that matters most is December 7. Anthem members who do nothing keep a plan that, by Kettering’s own announcement, will no longer include its hospitals and doctors from January 1.
Seeing Kettering doctors on an Anthem plan?
Staying put is the costly choice here. A person who keeps an Anthem Medicare Advantage plan past December 7 would likely wake up on January 1 with Kettering outside the plan’s network, and a hospital stay or specialist visit could then be billed as out-of-network care.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit is built for exactly this situation. It includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, and a provider call script for asking a plan whether a specific Kettering doctor is in its 2027 network. Its worksheets let a person write down the answer for each plan before choosing.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
