Medicare Advantage

Dual-eligible in Winston-Salem? Here are the 23 D-SNPs for 2027 and the rules for switching

Forsyth County has 97 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 15 plans are not coming back, 13 are new, and 41 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 16 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for Winston-Salem, not which plan to pick.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Fall 2026. If you have both Medicare and North Carolina Medicaid and live in or near Winston-Salem, you have a wider set of Dual Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) to look at for 2027 than most of your neighbors — and more chances during the year to change your mind. Forsyth County, where Winston-Salem sits, will have 23 D-SNPs available in 2027, offered by nine carriers, according to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source File for the 2027 plan year.

D-SNPs are a type of Medicare Advantage plan built for people who qualify for both programs. The Annual Enrollment Period for 2027 coverage runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, and any change you make takes effect January 1, 2027. If you do nothing, your current plan simply renews for 2027 with the updates listed in its Annual Notice of Change.

What is a D-SNP, and who qualifies in Winston-Salem for 2027?

A Dual Special Needs Plan is a Medicare Advantage plan that only enrolls people who have both Medicare and Medicaid. To join one in Winston-Salem, you need Medicare Part A and Part B and some level of help from NC Medicaid.

Medicaid help comes in different levels, and the level matters:

• Full dual eligible: You get full NC Medicaid benefits on top of Medicare. Medicaid also helps pay your Medicare premiums and cost-sharing.
• Partial dual eligible: You qualify for one of the Medicare Savings Programs (such as QMB, SLMB, or QI) that helps pay Medicare premiums and, in some cases, cost-sharing — but you do not get full Medicaid benefits.

Some D-SNPs accept only full duals; others accept partial duals too. The state Medicaid agency sets and confirms your category, and your category decides which plans in the table below you can actually enroll in. If you are not sure which bucket you fall into, call NC Medicaid or 1-800-MEDICARE before you shop.

How many D-SNPs are offered in Forsyth County for 2027, and by which carriers?

Forsyth County will have 23 D-SNPs for 2027, out of 97 Medicare Advantage plans total. The other Special Needs Plans in the county break down as 10 Chronic-condition SNPs (C-SNPs) and 8 Institutional SNPs (I-SNPs).

The nine carriers offering D-SNPs in the county for 2027, in alphabetical order, are:

• Aetna (CVS Health) — 2 D-SNPs
• Alignment Health Plan — 1 D-SNP
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina — 1 D-SNP
• Centene (WellCare) — 3 D-SNPs
• Devoted Health — 3 D-SNPs
• HealthSpring — 2 D-SNPs
• Humana — 5 D-SNPs
• Liberty Medicare Advantage — 1 D-SNP
• UnitedHealthcare — 5 D-SNPs

Two of UnitedHealthcare's D-SNPs — UHC Dual Complete NC-Q2 (HMO-POS D-SNP) and UHC Dual Complete NC-S3 (HMO-POS D-SNP) — are new for next year. Several others have been renamed, including Aetna Medicare Full Dual (HMO D-SNP), Alignment Health Duals+ 004 (HMO-POS D-SNP), the three Wellcare Carolina Complete Dual plans from Centene, UHC Dual Advantage NC-V1 (HMO-POS D-SNP), and UHC Dual Complete NC-Q1 (PPO D-SNP). The names changed; the ANOC your plan mails tells you whether anything else did. The table below lists every 2027 D-SNP available in the county.

How often can a dual-eligible person change plans in 2027?

If you have Medicare and Medicaid, or you qualify for the Extra Help program for drug costs, you get more chances to change plans than someone with Medicare alone. In general, you have a monthly Special Enrollment Period that lets you either join an integrated D-SNP or go back to Original Medicare and pick a stand-alone Part D drug plan.

That is on top of:

• The Annual Enrollment Period, October 15 – December 7, 2026, for coverage starting January 1, 2027.
• The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, January 1 – March 31, 2027, which lets anyone already in a Medicare Advantage plan make one switch.

The rules for dual-eligible enrollment have been updated by CMS in recent years, so before you make a mid-year change, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to confirm the current Special Enrollment Period rules for your situation.

How do I confirm my dual eligibility and compare D-SNPs in Winston-Salem?

Start by confirming where you stand with each program:

1. Medicare: Check your status at medicare.gov, on your red-white-and-blue Medicare card, or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE. 2. Medicaid: Contact NC Medicaid or your local county Department of Social Services (DSS) in Forsyth County to confirm whether you are full dual, partial dual, or in a Medicare Savings Program. 3. Compare plans: Use the Plan Finder at medicare.gov. Enter your ZIP code and your prescriptions, then filter for Special Needs Plans. The tool will show only the plans you are eligible to join based on your Medicaid status.

When you compare, look past the plan name. The Evidence of Coverage and Summary of Benefits for each plan spell out the provider network, drug list, cost-sharing, and extra benefits — not something a general article can tell you.

What is changing for 2027 that D-SNP members should know?

Two program-wide numbers for Part D are already set for 2027:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 in 2027 (up from $2,100 in 2026).
• The Part D maximum deductible is $700 in 2027 (up from $615 in 2026).

Most full dual-eligible members pay little or nothing for covered drugs because of Extra Help, so these caps often matter more to people with partial Medicaid help. The 2027 Part B standard premium, Part B deductible, and IRMAA income brackets have not been announced yet; CMS typically publishes them later in the fall.

If you want to keep your current D-SNP, you do not need to do anything — it will renew automatically if it is still offered. Read the Annual Notice of Change your plan sends; that is where any 2027 updates to your specific plan appear.