Medicare Advantage

Wichita's 2027 C-SNPs: four Medicare plans tied to a chronic diagnosis

People in Wichita can choose from 31 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 37 this year. Eleven of this year’s plans are gone, 5 are new to Sedgwick County, and 16 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 7 of them under a new name.

WICHITA — This fall, Medicare shoppers in and around Wichita who live with a serious ongoing illness have a narrower lane to look at inside Medicare Advantage: the Chronic Condition Special Needs Plan, or C-SNP. For plan year 2027, four C-SNPs will be offered in Sedgwick County, the county Wichita sits in, from three carriers. These plans are not for everyone — they are built for people whose doctor has confirmed a qualifying chronic condition.

What a C-SNP is, in plain terms

A Chronic Condition Special Needs Plan is one type of Medicare Advantage plan. Like other Advantage plans, it bundles Part A, Part B and (in these cases) Part D drug coverage into one plan from a private insurer. What makes it different is the membership rule: you can only enroll if you have a specific chronic condition that Medicare recognizes as qualifying, such as diabetes, chronic heart failure, or certain lung, kidney or neurologic conditions.

Because every member shares a condition, C-SNPs are allowed to tailor the plan around that condition — things like the drug list, the provider network and the care coordination the plan offers. Each C-SNP decides which condition or combination of conditions it serves.

The C-SNPs offered in Sedgwick County for 2027

For 2027, Sedgwick County has 4 C-SNPs out of 31 Medicare Advantage plans available in the county. Three carriers offer them: Aetna (CVS Health) with 1 plan, Humana with 2 plans, and UnitedHealthcare with 1 plan. The county also has 5 Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) and 3 Institutional Special Needs Plans (I-SNPs), which are different programs with different rules.

The table below lists every C-SNP in the county. In alphabetical order by carrier, the C-SNPs are:

• Aetna Medicare Chronic Care (HMO C-SNP) — Aetna (CVS Health); new for 2027
• Humana Gold Plus - Diabetes and Heart (HMO-POS C-SNP) — Humana
• Humana Gold Plus - Diabetes and Heart (HMO-POS C-SNP) — Humana
• UHC Complete Care KS-4 (HMO-POS C-SNP) — UnitedHealthcare

The two Humana plans share a name and tell you in the name which conditions they are built around. The Aetna and UnitedHealthcare plan names do not name a condition, so we are not going to guess at one — the plan's own materials spell out which diagnoses qualify.

How enrollment actually works

To join a C-SNP, you need two things: Medicare Parts A and B, and a qualifying chronic condition verified by a provider. In practice, the plan will ask your doctor to sign a short form confirming the diagnosis. If the plan cannot confirm the condition within a set window after you enroll, your membership can end.

That verification step is why C-SNPs are not a plan you pick on a hunch. Before you apply, it helps to know exactly which condition the plan serves and whether your doctor is willing and able to confirm it.

The Special Enrollment Period for a qualifying condition

Most Medicare shoppers are working toward one date: December 7, 2026, the end of the Annual Enrollment Period. A choice made in that window takes effect January 1, 2027, and if you do nothing, your current plan simply renews with the changes listed in its Annual Notice of Change (ANOC).

People with a qualifying chronic condition have an extra door. Having a qualifying condition triggers a Special Enrollment Period that lets you join a C-SNP outside the regular fall window. You can use it once per condition. If you later lose eligibility — for example, the plan can no longer verify your condition — you also get a Special Enrollment Period to switch to another Medicare Advantage plan or go back to Original Medicare.

What to check before you enroll

Because we cannot list plan costs or benefits here, treat the plan's own documents as the source of truth. A short checklist:

• The list of qualifying conditions for that specific C-SNP.
• Whether your doctors and preferred hospitals are in the network.
• Whether your prescriptions are on the plan's drug list, and at what tier.
• The monthly premium, the deductible, and the plan's out-of-pocket maximum.
• The care coordination the plan offers for your condition.

For 2027, the Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026) and the Part D maximum deductible is $700 (up from $615 in 2026). The 2027 Part B premium and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets had not yet been announced as of early fall 2026; CMS typically publishes those later in the fall.