Medicare Advantage

Have a Chronic Condition? Nashville's 2027 C-SNP Options

Davidson County has 69 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 14 plans are not coming back, 9 are new, and 30 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 9 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for Nashville, not which plan to pick.

NASHVILLE — As the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period opens for 2027 coverage, people living with certain long-term health conditions in Davidson County have a specialized option to weigh: a Chronic Condition Special Needs Plan, or C-SNP. For plan year 2027, CMS data show 13 C-SNPs will be offered in the county, built around a verified diagnosis rather than a general enrollment.

Here is what that means, who can join, and when you can make the change.

What a C-SNP actually is

A Chronic Condition Special Needs Plan is a Medicare Advantage plan designed for people living with one or more specific chronic illnesses. Like other Medicare Advantage plans, a C-SNP bundles Part A, Part B and (in these cases) Part D drug coverage. The difference is who it is for: enrollment is limited to people whose provider confirms a qualifying condition that fits the plan's design.

Because the plan is tailored to a condition, the care team, drug list and extra benefits are generally shaped around managing that illness. The exact benefits vary from plan to plan, and the plan's own Evidence of Coverage is the source of truth.

Who qualifies, and how the diagnosis is confirmed

To enroll in a C-SNP, two things must line up:

1. You have Medicare Part A and Part B and live in the plan's service area. 2. You have the chronic condition the plan is built for, verified by a provider.

Verification usually happens with a short form the plan sends to your doctor's office after you apply. If the provider does not return the form in time, the plan can disenroll you — so it is worth following up after you sign up.

The 2027 C-SNPs offered in Davidson County

The table below lists every C-SNP available in the county for 2027. By carrier (alphabetical), they are:

• BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee — BlueAdvantage Total Heart and Diabetes (PPO C-SNP); BlueAdvantage Total Heart and Diabetes Plus (PPO C-SNP)
• Devoted Health — DEVOTED C-SNP CHOICE ENHANCED 018 TN (PPO C-SNP); DEVOTED C-SNP CHOICE ENHANCED 029 TN (PPO C-SNP); DEVOTED C-SNP CHOICE GIVEBACK EXTRAS 034 TN (PPO C-SNP); DEVOTED C-SNP CHOICE PLUS 020 TN (PPO C-SNP); DEVOTED C-SNP CHOICE PLUS 031 TN (PPO C-SNP)
• HealthSpring — HealthSpring Achieve (HMO C-SNP)
• UnitedHealthcare — UHC Complete Care Support TC-6 (HMO-POS C-SNP); UHC Complete Care TC-0005 (HMO-POS C-SNP)
• Zing Health — Zing Open Choice Diabetes & Heart TN (PPO C-SNP); Zing Select Diabetes & Heart TN-MS (HMO C-SNP); Zing Select Dialysis TN-MS (HMO C-SNP)

A few names tell you the condition the plan is built around — the Zing dialysis plan and the plans whose names reference diabetes and heart conditions, for example. Where the name does not state the condition, do not assume it; the plan documents will spell it out.

Among the 2027 C-SNPs, three Devoted Health plans are new for next year (CHOICE ENHANCED 029 TN, CHOICE GIVEBACK EXTRAS 034 TN and CHOICE PLUS 031 TN), and one — DEVOTED C-SNP CHOICE ENHANCED 018 TN — is a rename of a plan Devoted offered this year. If you were enrolled in the plan that was renamed, your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) will walk through what is different.

For context, Davidson County will have 69 Medicare Advantage plans in 2027 in total. Alongside the 13 C-SNPs, there are 12 Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) for people with both Medicare and Medicaid, and 7 Institutional SNPs (I-SNPs) for people in long-term care settings.

When you can enroll

Two enrollment windows matter here:

• Annual Enrollment Period (AEP): October 15 – December 7, 2026. A choice you make in this window takes effect January 1, 2027. If you do nothing, your current plan renews — with whatever changes the ANOC lists — as long as the plan is being offered next year.
• Special Enrollment Period (SEP) for a chronic condition: People who qualify for a C-SNP based on a chronic condition generally have an SEP to join a C-SNP that fits their diagnosis, outside of AEP. This SEP is tied to the diagnosis, not the calendar, so it does not depend on waiting for fall.

If you qualify, you can use either window — but you can only be enrolled in one Medicare Advantage plan at a time.

How to decide if a C-SNP fits

A C-SNP is not automatically a better fit than a general Medicare Advantage plan or Original Medicare with a stand-alone drug plan. It is a different fit. Questions worth working through:

• Does the plan's design match the condition my provider has diagnosed?
• Are the doctors and specialists I already see in the plan's network?
• Are my prescriptions on the plan's drug list, and at what tier?
• What are the plan's rules for referrals, prior authorization and out-of-area care?

None of those answers live in a landscape summary — they live in the plan's own Evidence of Coverage and provider and drug directories. The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov lets you compare them side by side using your own ZIP code and medication list.

A few 2027 program figures worth knowing

Whichever plan type you land on, the Part D rules change again in 2027:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 in 2027 (it is $2,100 in 2026).
• The Part D maximum deductible rises to $700 in 2027 (it is $615 in 2026).
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan — the option to spread drug costs across the plan year in monthly amounts — continues.

The 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets, have not yet been published. CMS typically announces them later in the fall.