Medicare Advantage

Wellcare Medicare Advantage in Kentucky for 2027: 7 Plans, County by County

FRANKFORT, Ky. — For the 2027 plan year, Wellcare — which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services groups under Centene (WellCare) — will offer 7 Medicare Advantage plans in Kentucky, according to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source Files for CY2027. Those plans are spread across HMO-POS and PPO designs, and several are Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) built for people who have both Medicare and Medicaid. This explainer is published by an independent Medicare education site; it is privately owned, is not the government, and is not affiliated with any insurance carrier.

Because Medicare Advantage plans are sold county by county, a plan listed statewide may not be offered in your Kentucky county. The counts and plan names below come straight from the CMS Landscape files; for anything about cost, benefits, provider networks, drug lists or star ratings, use the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov, call 1-800-MEDICARE, or read the plan's own Evidence of Coverage and directories.

What is Wellcare offering across Kentucky for 2027?

Wellcare will offer 7 Medicare Advantage plans in Kentucky for 2027, with 5 HMO-POS plans and 2 PPO plans, based on the CMS MA Landscape Source File for CY2027. All 7 plans include Part D prescription drug coverage.

Of those 7 plans, 4 are Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs). Wellcare is not offering a Chronic Condition SNP (C-SNP) or an Institutional SNP (I-SNP) in Kentucky for 2027. For context, 10 other carriers are also selling Medicare Advantage plans somewhere in Kentucky for 2027, and across every carrier, the state has 123 Medicare Advantage plans on the Landscape file. The full plan-by-plan breakdown appears in the tables elsewhere on this page.

Which Wellcare plans in Kentucky for 2027 reach the most counties?

All 7 of Wellcare's Kentucky plans for 2027 are listed in 120 counties on the CMS Landscape file, which is the broadest reach a plan can show on this year's file for the state. In other words, no single Wellcare plan is restricted to a smaller slice of Kentucky on the Landscape file than the others.

Those seven plans are Wellcare Dual Access (HMO-POS D-SNP), Wellcare Dual Access Sync Open (PPO D-SNP), Wellcare Dual Liberty Sync (HMO-POS D-SNP), Wellcare Dual Reserve (HMO-POS D-SNP), Wellcare Giveback (HMO-POS), Wellcare Simple (HMO-POS) and Wellcare Simple Open (PPO). The four Dual plans are the D-SNP options; Giveback, Simple and Simple Open are general Medicare Advantage plans open to anyone who qualifies for Medicare Advantage. For details on how each plan works, see its Evidence of Coverage.

What is new or not returning from Wellcare in Kentucky for 2027?

Wellcare is not adding any brand-new Medicare Advantage plans in Kentucky for 2027, and 2 of its 2026 Kentucky plans are not returning for 2027, according to the CMS year-over-year Landscape comparison. One existing plan has been renamed: Wellcare Dual Access (HMO-POS D-SNP) was called Wellcare Dual Access Sync (HMO-POS D-SNP) on the 2026 file.

If you are currently enrolled in a Wellcare plan that is not continuing into 2027, you should receive an Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) from the carrier explaining your options. That letter, together with the Medicare Plan Finder, is the right place to confirm what your plan is doing next year.

How do I check whether a Wellcare plan is offered in my Kentucky county for 2027?

To confirm that a specific Wellcare plan is offered in your Kentucky county for 2027, enter your ZIP code on the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE (TTY 1-877-486-2048), available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Landscape file lists plans at the county level, so a plan available in 120 Kentucky counties may still not appear in yours.

Once you see the plans in your county, two checks matter most:

• Doctors and hospitals: use the plan's provider directory, or call the provider's billing office, to confirm they will be in-network under that specific 2027 plan.
• Prescriptions: look up each medication in the plan's 2027 formulary to see whether it is covered and under what rules.

Those details are not in the Landscape file, and no article should quote them for you.

What should Kentuckians do before December 7, 2026?

The deadline to choose or change a Medicare Advantage plan for 2027 is December 7, 2026, and the plan you pick during Annual Enrollment 2027 takes effect January 1, 2027. The Annual Enrollment Period runs from October 15 through December 7, 2026.

A simple checklist before that date:

1. Read your current plan's Annual Notice of Change for 2027. 2. On medicare.gov, compare the plans actually offered in your county, including any Wellcare plans listed there. 3. Confirm your doctors, hospitals and pharmacies for each plan you are considering. 4. Confirm each prescription on the 2027 formulary. 5. Enroll by December 7, 2026 if you want to change.

If you take no action and your current plan is continuing, you generally stay in it. If your plan is one of the 2 Wellcare plans not returning, you will need to pick something else to avoid a gap.

Where can Kentuckians get free help choosing a 2027 Medicare plan?

The free, official sources for help with 2027 Medicare choices in Kentucky are medicare.gov and 1-800-MEDICARE (TTY 1-877-486-2048), both run by the federal Medicare program. The Plan Finder on medicare.gov lets you compare every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan available in your county side by side.

You can also go directly to Wellcare for its plan documents, including the Summary of Benefits and Evidence of Coverage for each 2027 plan. Because this site is independent and not the carrier, those documents are the authoritative source for any detail about a specific Wellcare plan.