Medicare Advantage

North Carolina Medicare Advantage Plans for Chronic Conditions in 2027: 21 C-SNPs

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolinians living with a long-term health condition will have 21 Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans (C-SNPs) to consider for 2027, a slice of the 179 Medicare Advantage plans listed statewide in the federal government's plan files. These plans are built specifically for people whose doctor can verify a qualifying chronic illness, and they sit alongside 28 Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) and 10 Institutional Special Needs Plans (I-SNPs) on the state's Medicare Advantage menu.

Chronic-condition plansNorth Carolina

Here is what the 2027 landscape looks like, who qualifies, and how to check whether any of these plans are actually sold in your county.

What a C-SNP is and who qualifies

A Chronic Condition Special Needs Plan is a type of Medicare Advantage plan designed around a specific chronic illness or group of illnesses. To join, a beneficiary must have the condition the plan serves, and a health care provider must confirm it in writing. The plan then documents that diagnosis as part of enrollment. If the condition cannot be verified, enrollment cannot stand.

C-SNPs are still Medicare Advantage plans, so they replace Original Medicare for the member and typically wrap medical and prescription drug coverage together. Specific costs, covered services, provider networks and drug formularies are set plan by plan and are available on the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov, by calling 1-800-MEDICARE, or in the plan's own Evidence of Coverage and provider and pharmacy directories.

The statewide count and the carriers offering them

For 2027, the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape file lists 21 C-SNPs available somewhere in North Carolina. Seven carriers are responsible for them:

• Aetna (CVS Health) — 3 plans
• Alignment Health Plan — 2 plans
• Devoted Health — 10 plans
• HealthSpring — 1 plan
• Humana — 1 plan
• Liberty Medicare Advantage — 1 plan
• UnitedHealthcare — 3 plans

The full plan-by-plan list — including which plans are new for 2027 and which were renamed from a 2026 version — is rendered as a table elsewhere on this page. Several Devoted Health C-SNPs carry a "GIVEBACK EXTRAS" label that is new for 2027, HealthSpring Achieve is a new HMO C-SNP entry, and one of the Aetna Medicare Chronic Care HMO C-SNPs is also new for next year. Alignment Health Plan's two C-SNPs and four of Devoted Health's C-SNPs are renamed versions of plans that existed under a prior name in 2026.

County reach, drawn from the same source file, varies widely. Some plans are listed in only a handful of counties; the Humana Gold Plus - Diabetes and Heart C-SNP is listed in 96 counties, Liberty Medicare Advantage's C-SNP in 54 counties, and the Devoted Health DEVOTED C-SNP PLUS 015 NC plan in 52 counties. A plan appearing in the statewide total does not mean it is sold where you live.

The conditions named in plan names

Medicare rules require C-SNPs to serve a defined qualifying condition, but not every plan spells that condition out in its public name. For 2027 in North Carolina, two plan names explicitly identify the conditions they serve:

• Alignment Health Heart & Diabetes 011 (HMO C-SNP) and Alignment Health Heart & Diabetes Plus 009 (HMO-POS C-SNP), from Alignment Health Plan, name heart conditions and diabetes.
• Humana Gold Plus - Diabetes and Heart (HMO C-SNP), from Humana, names diabetes and heart conditions.

The other plans — the three Aetna Medicare Chronic Care and Chronic Care Value HMO C-SNPs, the Devoted Health C-SNP ENHANCED, GIVEBACK EXTRAS and PLUS plans, HealthSpring Achieve, Liberty Medicare Advantage's C-SNP, and the three UHC Complete Care NC-25, NC-27 and NC-28 HMO-POS C-SNPs — do not state a condition in the name shown in the federal file. For those, the qualifying condition is defined in the plan's own documents, and a prospective member and their provider should confirm eligibility before enrolling.

Special Enrollment Period for people with a qualifying condition

The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, and a plan chosen during that window begins January 1, 2027. That is the main window most Medicare households use.

People who qualify for a C-SNP have an additional path. A documented qualifying chronic condition generally opens a Special Enrollment Period to join a C-SNP outside the fall window. The current rules for Special Enrollment Periods, including how long the opportunity lasts after a diagnosis is confirmed, are described on medicare.gov. A representative at 1-800-MEDICARE can also walk through whether a specific situation qualifies.

Checking a plan in your county

A C-SNP shows up in the statewide total if it is sold in any North Carolina county. That is not the same as being sold in yours. Before comparing plans, the practical first step is to confirm which of the 21 C-SNPs are actually offered where you live.

The simplest way is to enter your ZIP code at medicare.gov and filter for Special Needs Plans. The results reflect the same federal source file that produced the counts above, updated to your location. For each plan you are considering, the Plan Finder lists the premium, deductible, cost sharing, drug coverage, provider network and star rating as filed by the carrier. 1-800-MEDICARE can walk through the same information by phone, and the carrier's own Evidence of Coverage and provider and pharmacy directories are the authoritative sources for benefits and networks.

Free help

Comparing C-SNPs can feel detailed because eligibility depends on a documented condition and because availability changes from county to county. Two no-cost, non-sales resources are available to every North Carolinian with Medicare:

• medicare.gov, including the Plan Finder, which pulls from the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape source files.
• 1-800-MEDICARE, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for questions about enrollment periods, eligibility and plan details.

Neither charges a fee, and neither is tied to a particular carrier.