Medicare Advantage members who use Fairview Health Services in Minnesota, Vanderbilt Health in Tennessee, St. Vincent Health in Colorado or Mass General Brigham primary care in western Massachusetts are losing in-network access, and Medicare’s annual enrollment period closes Dec. 7. Three of the four exits take effect Jan. 1, 2027, while the Massachusetts change began Oct. 1 and carries a transition window that ends Dec. 31.
The four health systems are acting against four different insurers: UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Humana and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Each system has posted its own patient notice, and none of the notices describes a plan ending. The plans continue to exist, but a hospital or doctor that patients have used for years is no longer on their list.
The question for anyone holding one of these cards is whether the specific hospital and doctors they use are on the 2027 network of the plan they pick, because a plan that stays the same on paper can still shut them out. Members of the four plans named here have until Dec. 7 to move to a plan that includes their providers, and anyone who does nothing keeps a plan that will not schedule them at the affected locations.
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Fairview ends its UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage contract in Minnesota
Fairview Health Services says it will stop scheduling patients on UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans starting Jan. 1, 2027. The system cites “frequent coverage changes, denials, and payment issues” as its reasons. The notice covers Fairview providers and facilities in the Twin Cities metro area, Fairview Range in Hibbing, and Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital in Grand Rapids.
Some UnitedHealthcare materials tell members that Fairview stays in network. Fairview’s page calls that information incorrect. Patients whose plan does not include Fairview may be unable to schedule visits on or after Jan. 1, even if the appointments were booked earlier.
Three Medicare Advantage carriers stay in network with Fairview for 2027: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners and Medica. Fairview also accepts Original Medicare, Medicare supplement plans, Medicare Cost plans and Medicare plans offered through an employer. UnitedHealthcare commercial coverage is not affected, and those patients keep in-network access.
Free counseling is available through Minnesota Aging Pathways at 1-800-333-2433, the service formerly called the Senior LinkAge Line. Fairview also lists Chapter, which offers one-on-one Medicare counseling at no cost, at (855) 797-3811.
Vanderbilt Health leaves Aetna’s Medicare Advantage network in Tennessee
Starting Jan. 1, 2027, Vanderbilt Health will no longer be in the Aetna Medicare Advantage network. The notice covers both individual and group Aetna Medicare Advantage plans, and it applies to every Vanderbilt Health location and affiliated entity except Vanderbilt Clarksville Hospital and Clarksville Physician Services.
Aetna Medicare Advantage plans will keep covering the Clarksville hospital in 2027. For everyone else, Vanderbilt advises members who want to keep receiving care there to review their Medicare options during the Oct. 15 to Dec. 7 enrollment period and to consider a plan that includes Vanderbilt in its network.
Because the notice names group plans alongside individual ones, retirees in employer-sponsored Aetna Medicare Advantage coverage are included as well. The page lists common questions about transplant patients, surgery scheduled before Jan. 1, cancer treatment, emergency care, prescriptions and lab draws, and it directs members with questions about the change to (855) 429-2989.
St. Vincent Health in Leadville steps away from Humana Medicare Advantage
St. Vincent Health, the Leadville hospital led by Chief Executive Officer Bubba Bartlett, says it will discontinue its participation in the Humana Medicare Advantage network effective Jan. 1, 2027. The hospital is already out of network with Humana commercial plans, and patients with other Medicare coverage are not affected.
The hospital tells patients to look beyond the hospital itself. Specialists, prescription coverage, deductibles, copays, coinsurance, referral rules and prior authorization requirements all differ by plan, and the notice says patients considering a switch should not wait until they need care to learn a plan’s network status. The patient financial counselor at 719-486-0230, extension 205, handles Humana patients with care scheduled after Dec. 31.
Free insurance counseling comes through the State Health Insurance Assistance Program at 719-471-2096, or toll-free at 1-888-696-7213. Emergency care at the hospital’s 24-hour emergency department is not supposed to wait on insurance questions.
Blue Cross Medicare Advantage loses Cooley Dickinson primary care in western Massachusetts
Since Oct. 1, Cooley Dickinson primary care providers within Mass General Brigham have been out of network for Blue Cross Medicare Advantage plans. The Blue Cross HMO covers specialty care only at those practices, and the PPO is accepted with higher cost sharing. Mass General Brigham specialty and hospital care, including Cooley Dickinson Hospital, stays in network for Blue Cross Medicare Advantage and commercial plans.
Members can request continuity of care to keep seeing their current primary care provider, either with a form submitted directly or through the number on the back of the member ID card. For approved requests, care continues at the in-network rate through a 90-day transition window that runs through Dec. 31, 2026.
For 2027, Mass General Brigham lists Health New England Medicare Advantage, Tufts Medicare Preferred and UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage as in-network options for western Massachusetts primary care, along with Traditional Medicare paired with a supplemental plan. Its Patient Insurance Resource Center answers questions at 800-953-1680.
What the Dec. 7 deadline locks in
Medicare’s annual enrollment period runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, and plan changes made in it take effect Jan. 1. Fairview notes that insurers were required to send an Annual Notice of Change by the end of September, and that coverage can change even when the plan name stays the same. Members who want a different plan can compare options on Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE.
The Massachusetts notice adds that members already in a Medicare Advantage plan get a separate Medicare Advantage open enrollment period from Jan. 1 to March 31, in which they may change plans once. Anyone relying on that second window starts the year on a plan with the narrowed network.
All four notices share one mechanism: the hospital or physician group, not the member, ended the contract, and the name on the insurance card gives no sign of it. A member holding a UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Humana or Blue Cross card on Dec. 8 is carrying coverage that will not schedule them at the affected Minnesota, Tennessee, Colorado or Massachusetts locations, and the practical decision before then is which plan lists the doctor, not which plan costs least.
Still on the card that lost the hospital?
The detail that decides these cases is small and easy to miss: whether the exact hospital and clinic a person uses appears on a plan’s 2027 network list. A member who misses it can find on Jan. 1 that a Fairview, Vanderbilt, St. Vincent or Cooley Dickinson appointment will not be scheduled.
The Medicare Money Bundle puts all 8 Medicare guides in one download, with large print. Open Enrollment in an Afternoon covers Plan Finder in one sitting and ends in a keep-or-switch answer, and Medigap vs. Medicare Advantage lays out Medigap rights, state rules and both paths priced.
It also includes guides on Extra Help and Medicare Savings Programs, the drug cap, wrong bills and late penalties, so the same download keeps working after the plan decision is made.
Get the Plan Finder walkthrough and Medigap-vs-Advantage guide for a lost hospital →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
