This week’s newsletter is Sponsored By: Medicare Market Insights +
Includes “Tea Leaves - AEP 2027 🍂” - (Upgrade Now!)
Here is what you’ll find in this week’s newsletter!
Important links 🔗 - the best articles we found this week about the Medicare Market along with links to Jared’s recent LinkedIn posts.
Deep Dive 📚 - C-SNP Continues to Grow in 2026 🚀
Sponsor Snapshot 🚀 - brought to you by Medicare Market Insights +
It’s only a 5 minute read, but it will make you 10x smarter.
Here are IMPORTANT LINKS 🔗 for the week:
4 huge Medicare pay reforms are part of new bipartisan House bill - (link)
Medicare Will Spend More Than $13 Billion on the Medicare Advantage Quality Bonus Program in 2026 - (link)
Medbridge, Patient360 join on Medicare quality reporting - (link)
Costco to start selling Medicare plans to bring ‘greater value’ to seniors - (link)
Providence Health Plan to shut down after Medicare Advantage deal falls through - (link)
Bruin Biometrics Hires Monument Advocacy for Medicare Lobbying - (link)
Jared’s recent LinkedIn posts:
DEEP DIVE 📚
C-SNP Continues to Grow in 2026 🚀
While the broader individual Medicare Advantage enrollment has slowed recently, the C-SNP market continues to grow. Expanding access for beneficiaries with complex chronic needs.
In this week’s deep dive we are going to look closer at that growth.
(Note: Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans (C-SNPs) serve Medicare beneficiaries with qualifying chronic conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and certain autoimmune diseases)
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The Growth Continues (though a bit slower)
Source: MMI+ web app.
As you can see, there continues to be large increases during AEP, and then continued growth throughout the year.
YoY growth comparison:
Dec. '23 – Aug. '24: 242,690 enrollment growth (45% growth rate)
Dec. '24 – Aug. ’25: 447,165 enrollment growth (51% growth rate)
Dec. ’25 – Aug. ’26: 362,214 enrollment growth (25% growth rate)
The C-SNP enrollment growth rate has slowed in 2026 (compared to 2025), but continues to outpace non-SNP (4%, 2%, 0%) and D-SNP market growth rates (6%, 3%, 5%) during the same time periods.
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Where the Growth Happened
C-SNP By State
First of all, not every state has C-SNP enrollment. In the map below, the grey states have no recorded enrollment.
(Note: CMS data excludes counties with fewer than 11 enrollees, so some states may have small but unreported enrollment.)
Source: MMI+ web app.
Below is the C-SNP enrollment growth from Dec. 2025 to Aug. 2026 along with C-SNP market share by state.
Source: data pulled from MMI+ web app.
Key Callouts:
Large MA states (Florida, Texas and California) continue to lead the market in C-SNP enrollment and have all seen impressive growth in 2026
Opportunities? New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan. Large MA populations with lower than average C-SNP penetration suggesting market potential. This is true even after seeing explosive growth for some of these states so far in 2026.
Georgia C-SNP growth stopped after enrollment grew 40% in the same period the prior year.
C-SNP Penetration Rate: Nationwide penetration has grown to 5.9% (up from 4.5% the year prior), and Arkansas reached 16%, showing the high potential.
💥 If all states were at 16%, the C-SNP market would be 4.8 million (nearly 2.7x current)!
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Carrier C-SNP Growth
Source: data pulled from MMI+ web app.
Key callouts:
UnitedHealth C-SNP growth slowed significantly compared to 2025.
Humana has grown the most (~91,000), with Devoted and CVS not far behind.
Devoted and CVS have shown explosive growth so far in 2026 (>1000% growth rate)
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Is C-SNP Holding Up Under Market Pressure?
In recent years, Carriers have responded to market pressure (high loss ratios, shrinking profit margins) by terminating unprofitable plans.
Were C-SNP plans targeted for Plan Terminations during this past AEP?
Source: data pulled from MMI+ web app.
The answer is yes, but at a much more normal rate of 3% compared to the elevated 12% for Non-SNP plans.
Why? Likely due to the better economics in C-SNP plans (C-SNP plans carry higher-acuity members with elevated RAF scores, which translate to higher CMS payments per member).
As we head into AEP 2027, more Carriers are terminating plans (see “Tea Leaves - AEP 2027”). So far, there is no indication that C-SNPs will be targeted for Plan Terminations differently than past years.
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The C-SNP market continues to expand much faster than the overall Medicare Advantage market.
With only 5.9% penetration nationwide, C-SNPs remain one of the least saturated (but fastest-growing) opportunities in Medicare Advantage.
Several Carriers expanded their footprint in 2026. Expect this segment to be a key battleground heading into 2027.
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What MMI + Subscribers read this week…
Tea Leaves - AEP 2027 🍂 - Repository of 2027 AEP changes / opportunities (last updated 8/10/2026) (link)
Insurance Regulatory Insights August 2026 - State bulletins, federal rulemaking, and a fresh round of MA bills — what's final, what's new, and what's moving. (link)
August ‘26 MA/MAPD and PDP enrollment data - April enrollment data has been loaded. Here are a few observations. (link)
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