Medicare Advantage

Tucson's 2027 C-SNP lineup: 24 Medicare Advantage plans built for one diagnosis

People in Tucson can choose from 88 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 82 this year. 14 of this year’s plans are gone, 20 are new to Pima County, and 32 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 12 of them under a new name.

TUCSON, Ariz. — As the Annual Enrollment Period opens Oct. 15, 2026, people in and around Tucson who live with a serious ongoing illness have a specific set of Medicare Advantage plans to look at: Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans, or C-SNPs. These are not plans anyone can join. They are built around a single qualifying diagnosis — like diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung disease or end-stage renal disease — and enrollment requires a provider to confirm the condition.

For plan year 2027, Pima County (where Tucson sits) has 24 C-SNPs on the shelf, from 10 carriers. That is the slice of the local Medicare Advantage market this article is about.

What a C-SNP is, in plain terms

A Chronic Condition Special Needs Plan is a type of Medicare Advantage plan. Like other Medicare Advantage plans, it bundles Part A, Part B and (in every Pima County C-SNP for 2027) Part D drug coverage into one plan run by a private insurer. What makes a C-SNP different is who it is for and how it is designed.

CMS allows these plans to limit enrollment to people with one specific chronic condition — or sometimes a small group of related conditions. The plan's provider network, drug list and extra benefits are shaped around that condition. If the name says "Heart & Diabetes," the plan is built for people living with those illnesses. If it says "Lung Care," it is built for people with a qualifying lung condition. We only describe a plan as serving a condition when its name says so; we do not infer it.

How enrollment actually works

Joining a C-SNP is a two-step process:

1. You enroll in the plan the same way you would any Medicare Advantage plan — through medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE or the plan directly. 2. Your provider confirms the diagnosis. The plan sends a form (sometimes called a chronic condition verification form) to the doctor you name. The doctor has to confirm you have the qualifying condition. If the confirmation does not come back, the plan cannot keep you enrolled.

This is why C-SNPs are not something to pick on a hunch. Before you sign up, talk to the provider who treats the condition and make sure they know the form is coming.

The Special Enrollment Period for a qualifying condition

Most people can only switch Medicare Advantage plans during the Annual Enrollment Period (Oct. 15 – Dec. 7, 2026, for coverage starting Jan. 1, 2027) or the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (Jan. 1 – March 31). People with a qualifying chronic condition have an extra door: a Special Enrollment Period that lets them join a C-SNP for their condition outside those windows, once the diagnosis is confirmed.

A few things worth knowing about that SEP:

• It is tied to the condition, not the calendar. Once a provider confirms the qualifying diagnosis, the SEP opens.
• You generally use it one time to enroll in a C-SNP for that condition.
• If you later lose the C-SNP (for example, if the plan leaves the area), there are separate SEPs for that situation.

For personal eligibility questions, medicare.gov and 1-800-MEDICARE can walk you through what applies to you.

The 2027 C-SNP lineup in Pima County, by carrier

Pima County has 24 C-SNPs for 2027 from 10 carriers. By carrier count:

• Aetna (CVS Health): 1
• Alignment Health Plan: 3
• Centene (WellCare): 1
• Devoted Health: 5
• Elevance Health (Anthem): 5
• Gold Kidney Health Plan: 3
• HealthSpring: 1
• SCAN Health Plan: 3
• UnitedHealthcare: 1
• Verda Health Plan of Arizona: 1

Several of these are new for 2027, including Aetna Medicare Chronic Care (HMO C-SNP), three Devoted Health C-SNPs (DEVOTED C-SNP ENHANCED 096 AZ, DEVOTED C-SNP GIVEBACK EXTRAS 102 AZ and DEVOTED C-SNP PLUS 097 AZ), two SCAN plans (SCAN DaVita Dialysis Care Complete and SCAN Walmart Medicare Complete) and Verda Noble Chronic Care. Three Alignment Health plans have been renamed; the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) current members received lays out any other changes. The table below lists every 2027 C-SNP in the county with its plan type.

What to do this fall

• If you already have a C-SNP, read the ANOC that arrived in September. Nothing happens if you do nothing: your plan renews for 2027 if it is being offered, with the changes the ANOC describes.
• If you think you qualify, start with the provider who treats your condition. The diagnosis has to be documented and confirmed for a C-SNP to accept you.
• Compare carefully. Drug lists, provider networks and extra benefits vary a lot plan to plan. The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov lets you enter your prescriptions and preferred doctors.

A couple of 2027 program figures worth having in mind for any Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage, C-SNP or not: the Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 in 2027 (from $2,100 in 2026), and the Part D maximum deductible rises to $700 in 2027 (from $615 in 2026). The 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA brackets, have not yet been announced; CMS publishes those later in the fall.