Braven Health members in New Jersey have until December 7 to choose a new Medicare plan that starts January 1, because every Braven Medicare Advantage plan in the state ends on December 31. At least 42,349 people are enrolled in the ten plans, by one count of federal enrollment data.
Members who take no action are moved to Original Medicare, which has no drug coverage and no cap on yearly out-of-pocket costs. A second window opens December 8, but it can leave a gap in coverage.
Ten plans, all 21 counties, one end date
Braven spokesman Thomas Wilson said the company “made the difficult choice to not offer Medicare Advantage plans after Dec. 31, 2026,” according to Live Insurance News. Wilson also said market conditions compromised Braven’s ability to keep providing members with high-quality coverage, and that the company would support members through 2026.
Braven offered plans in all 21 New Jersey counties, and it is one of 12 insurers leaving the Medicare Advantage market for 2027, according to CMS data tallied by Becker’s Payer Issues. Eight of the twelve are owned wholly or partly by health systems, and Braven is among them.
Where the 42,349 figure comes from
The 42,349 number is not a company figure. Live Insurance News added up member counts for the ten plans from CMS’s 2027 plan crosswalk data, and it calls the result a minimum. CMS holds back county counts for small groups, so the true total is higher.
Braven Medicare Choice, a PPO sold as plan H0885-001 in Essex, Hudson, Monmouth, Ocean and one more county, has the most members at 21,458. Braven Medicare Choice Plus follows with 4,976, and a Braven Medicare Freedom PPO covering Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Middlesex counties among others has 3,955.
Anyone holding a Braven Medicare Choice, Choice Plus, Freedom or Salute No Rx card in New Jersey is in a plan that ends. The question for each of them is the same: which plan with their doctors and medicines in it will be in place on January 1.
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What happens to members who pick nothing, and the dates that matter
A person whose Medicare Advantage plan is leaving Medicare and who does not choose another one during open enrollment is, Medicare.gov says, enrolled in Original Medicare automatically. Original Medicare covers hospital and doctor bills, but it does not include prescription drugs, dental or vision.
The drug gap is the costly part. Live Insurance News notes that going 63 days or more without creditable drug coverage can bring a permanent Part D late-enrollment penalty.
Anyone who wants Original Medicare on purpose still has to add a drug plan. The same Medicare.gov page explains that a person who switches to Original Medicare can buy certain Medigap policies, but only by leaving Medicare Advantage rather than joining a new Medicare Advantage plan.
The first window is open now. Annual open enrollment runs October 15 through December 7, and a plan chosen in that period starts January 1, 2027. Medicare’s free Plan Finder lets people compare options by county, drug list and provider.
The second window is a special enrollment period tied to the plan ending. Live Insurance News reports it runs from December 8, 2026, through February 28, 2027. Coverage starts the first of the month after enrollment is processed, so a December sign-up starts January 1 and a January sign-up starts February 1, leaving a month with no plan.
The third window is for Medigap. Medicare.gov says a person can apply from 60 days before Medicare Advantage coverage ends to 63 days after, which in this case works out to November 1, 2026, through March 4, 2027. Live Insurance News advises keeping the non-renewal letter as proof of the qualifying event.
New Jersey’s State Health Insurance Assistance Program offers free counseling on Medicare Advantage, Medigap and stand-alone drug plans at 1-800-792-8820. The counselors are trained volunteers who explain choices but do not recommend a specific plan. Appointments can be virtual or by phone, and County Offices on Aging can connect people to a counselor.
The national Medicare helpline, 1-800-633-4227, is the other number Live Insurance News lists. With about seven weeks left before December 7, a PPO member who also wants to keep a current specialist should check each candidate plan’s network before a pharmacy price comparison, since a missing doctor is harder to fix after January 1.
How a plan that began with 13,000 members got here
The company was a joint venture of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Hackensack Meridian Health and RWJBarnabas Health, which announced the plan in September 2020. It reached all 21 counties by 2023, after starting in eight, Live Insurance News reports.
Braven started in January 2021 as a “payvider,” a plan owned in part by the hospital systems that treat its members. Live Insurance News says it enrolled more than 13,000 people in its first year and held an estimated seven in ten Medicare Advantage enrollees in its first eight counties: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Passaic and Union.
It was not profitable as of early 2023, which the company’s leaders had said they expected. The exit also fits a national pattern. Live Insurance News cites a February 2026 analysis in the American Journal of Managed Care, led by Mark Meiselbach of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, that projected forced disenrollment near 10 percent nationally for 2026, against about 1 percent from 2018 to 2024.
Need a new plan before December 7?
Members who wait past December 7 are relying on a special enrollment window where a January sign-up starts February 1. Original Medicare, the default, has no drug benefit.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, plus a prescription-by-plan comparison. Part 4 covers Medigap checkpoints, which suits members weighing Original Medicare with a supplement against another Medicare Advantage plan.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
