“IMPORTANT NOTICE: Your Medicare plan won’t be offered in 2025.” An estimated 10,000 New Hampshire seniors got that unsettling message in letters sent out earlier this month by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, the company that currently covers them under Medicare Advantage plans. And Harvard Pilgrim is not the only carrier making changes to Advantage plans, which are sold by private companies and cover some services that Medicare does not, such as vision, hearing or dental care.
Based on data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for 2022-2023, around 44,000 seniors in New Hampshire — more than half of the state’s Medicare Advantage population — may need to choose a new plan or carrier, according to New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner D.J Bettencourt. That’s either because the carrier is getting out of the Advantage market (Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Centene) or “narrowing their offerings” (such as Aetna and Humana), he said.
States do not regulate Medicare Advantage plans; that’s the federal government’s job. But Bettencourt said some insurance companies notified his department that they were ending or shrinking their Medicare Advantage plans in 2025. That prompted the Insurance Department to survey all companies that offer such plans here, he said.
It’s not unusual for insurance carriers to change what they offer each year, whether through a Medicare Advantage, Medicare supplemental (Medigap) or prescription drug plan. But this ye.