Medicare Advantage

Medicare and Medicaid in North Carolina: 28 Dual Special Needs Plans for 2027

RALEIGH, N.C. — For North Carolinians who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid, the 2027 plan year brings a familiar menu with some new entries. According to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source Files for CY2027, 28 of the 179 Medicare Advantage plans available in North Carolina are Dual Special Needs Plans, often called D-SNPs. Those plans are built specifically for people who have both forms of coverage, and they sit alongside 21 Chronic Condition SNPs (C-SNPs) and 10 Institutional SNPs (I-SNPs) in the state.

What a D-SNP is, and who qualifies

A Dual Special Needs Plan is a type of Medicare Advantage plan designed only for people who are enrolled in both Medicare and some level of Medicaid. All 28 D-SNPs listed for North Carolina in 2027 include drug coverage, and they come in HMO, HMO-POS and PPO formats.

Dual eligibility comes in two broad flavors. "Full" dual eligibility means a person qualifies for full North Carolina Medicaid benefits in addition to Medicare. "Partial" dual eligibility means Medicaid helps with Medicare costs through one of the Medicare Savings Programs but does not provide full Medicaid benefits. Different D-SNPs are built for different subsets of this population — some accept only full-benefit dual eligibles, others accept partial dual eligibles as well. Your category is confirmed by the North Carolina state Medicaid agency, and the plan verifies that status before you can enroll.

Because the rules depend on your Medicaid category, two neighbors on the same street can qualify for different plans. That is normal, and it is why the Plan Finder asks about your Medicaid status.

The statewide count and the carriers offering them

For 2027, the 28 D-SNPs in North Carolina come from 11 carriers. In alphabetical order, those carriers and the number of D-SNPs each offers are: Aetna (CVS Health) (2), Alignment Health Plan (1), AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care (1), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (1), Centene (WellCare) (3), Devoted Health (3), HealthSpring (2), Humana (6), Liberty Medicare Advantage (1), Troy Medicare (1), and UnitedHealthcare (7).

The full plan list is rendered as a table on this page, so you can scan names and county counts without wading through prose. A few housekeeping notes from the CMS files worth flagging:

• Several plans were renamed for 2027. For example, Aetna Medicare Dual (HMO D-SNP) is now Aetna Medicare Full Dual (HMO D-SNP); Alignment Health NC Duals (HMO-POS D-SNP) is now Alignment Health Duals+ 004 (HMO-POS D-SNP); the three Wellcare "Dual" plans from Centene now carry the "Carolina Complete" label; and three UnitedHealthcare plans were renamed from "UHC Dual Complete" variants to "UHC Dual Advantage NC-V1," "UHC Dual Complete NC-Q1," and related names. If your current card shows the old name, that does not necessarily mean the plan is gone — check the renaming note in the table.
• UnitedHealthcare also introduces new-for-2027 D-SNPs: UHC Dual Complete NC-Q2 (HMO-POS D-SNP) and UHC Dual Complete NC-S3 (HMO-POS D-SNP) appear as new plans in the CMS file.

A plan being listed statewide does not mean it is sold in your county. A D-SNP is offered county by county, and the county counts range widely across the 28 plans.

How often a dual-eligible person can change plans

Most people on Medicare think of October 15 – December 7 as the only window to make a change. For dual-eligible beneficiaries, there is more flexibility. People who have both Medicare and Medicaid generally have access to a Special Enrollment Period that lets them change Medicare Advantage or Part D plans once during each of the first three quarters of the year (January–March, April–June, and July–September). Any change made during the Annual Enrollment Period of October 15 – December 7, 2026, takes effect January 1, 2027.

There are also other Special Enrollment Periods tied to life events — moving, losing Medicaid, entering or leaving a nursing facility — and the rules for each are spelled out at medicare.gov under Medicare enrollment periods. If your Medicaid status changes during the year, that itself can open a window to switch, drop or add a D-SNP.

Checking a plan in your county

Because county availability is the whole ballgame, here is a reliable sequence:

1. Have your Medicare number and your North Carolina Medicaid information in front of you. 2. Go to the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov and enter your ZIP code and county. The tool will show only the D-SNPs offered where you live and will filter by your dual-eligible status. 3. For details a landscape file cannot show — the specific provider network, the drug formulary, the Evidence of Coverage, prior authorization rules — pull those documents directly from the plan or request them by phone. 4. If you currently have a D-SNP, read the Annual Notice of Change your plan mails in the fall. That document explains what, if anything, is different about your plan for 2027.

For year-over-year context — which plans are new, renamed, or no longer offered — the CMS MA Landscape Source Files for the current and coming plan year are the underlying record.

Free help

You do not have to sort this out alone, and you should not have to pay anyone to help you compare plans.

• Medicare.gov hosts the official Plan Finder, plan documents, and enrollment-period rules.
• 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can walk you through options, confirm your dual-eligible status on the Medicare side, and start or change an enrollment.

Keep your Medicare card, your Medicaid card, and a current list of your prescriptions and providers nearby when you call or sit down at the computer. Those three pieces of information drive almost every decision in a D-SNP comparison.