More than 23,000 Multnomah County Medicare Advantage enrollees must find new coverage for 2027.

Providence Health Plan is shutting down, other insurers are pulling back, and major hospitals are leaving plan networks.

Providence is ending all of its Medicare Advantage plans after this year, Willamette Week reported.

UnitedHealthcare is also dropping its Oregon Medicare Advantage contract with Providence. Portland-area seniors who relied on those plans to see Providence doctors face a scramble before open enrollment closes Dec. 7.

The disruption goes beyond Providence. Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) will no longer be in-network for Regence BlueCross BlueShield Medicare Advantage plans starting Jan. 1, according to The Oregonian.

PacificSource will stop offering Medicare Advantage in Multnomah County altogether. HealthSpring is leaving Multnomah and Washington counties.

Statewide, more than 162,000 Oregonians are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans that will be discontinued or no longer offered in their county next year, an Oregonian analysis of federal Medicare data found.

That is about 40% of the state's Medicare Advantage enrollment.

Few paths back to Providence

Portland-area members who want to keep seeing Providence providers have two main options, according to Willamette Week.

They can switch to Original Medicare, which Providence must accept. Or they can enroll with Devoted Health, a Massachusetts-based insurer that will be the only general-use Medicare Advantage plan with Providence in its Portland-area network for 2027.

A Providence spokesperson told Willamette Week the Devoted Health agreement gives Medicare Advantage members in the Portland metro area an option to stay connected to Providence hospitals, clinics and clinicians in 2027. The spokesperson also said the challenges facing Oregon's health care system extend well beyond Providence.

One senior's experience

The choices are not abstract. Sue Kveton, an 81-year-old Northwest Portland resident, told Willamette Week she has spent two years hunting for specialists who accept her UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan. She and her husband received care at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center for years until the hospital stopped taking their insurance.

"My career is now managing his health care," Kveton told Willamette Week.

Kveton got some relief when Legacy Health announced Sept. 30 that it reached a new contract with UnitedHealthcare, keeping Legacy's hospitals and clinics in-network for UnitedHealthcare members.

What Portland residents should do

Medicare open enrollment runs through Dec. 7, with changes taking effect Jan. 1. Members whose plans end Dec. 31 also get a special enrollment period from Dec. 8 through the end of February.

Multnomah County's Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance program (SHIBA) is seeing record demand. The program received 95 calls the day it opened enrollment appointments, nearly double its previous one-day high of about 50, The Oregonian reported. SHIBA has scheduled 17 enrollment events, the most it has ever offered.

Carisa Dickson, volunteer coordinator for Multnomah County's SHIBA program, told The Oregonian that costs depend on individual medications and urged members to read the Annual Notice of Change mailed by their health plans.

Residents can compare plans at Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE. For local help, Multnomah County SHIBA offers phone, virtual and in-person appointments at (503) 988-3646. The statewide SHIBA counseling line is 800-722-4134.

Oregon's average Medicare Advantage premium rises from $25.15 to $26.30 next year, even as the national average falls from $14.37 to $12.