Medicare Advantage

Do You Have Medicare and Medicaid in Dallas? Read This

People in Dallas can choose from 84 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 93 this year. 29 of this year’s plans are gone, 20 are new to Dallas County, and 31 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 9 of them under a new name.

DALLAS — If you have both Medicare and Medicaid and live in Dallas, your plan menu for 2027 is set, and the fall review window is open now. The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, with any change you make taking effect January 1, 2027.

Dallas sits in Dallas County, where Medicare plan availability is drawn at the county level. For 2027, CMS lists 20 Dual Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) in the county, offered by seven carriers. These plans are built for people who qualify for both programs — "dual eligibles" — and they coordinate Medicare benefits with the help you get through Texas Medicaid.

What a D-SNP is, in plain language

A Dual Special Needs Plan is a type of Medicare Advantage plan designed only for people who have both Medicare and Medicaid. Every D-SNP includes prescription drug coverage, and plans work with the state Medicaid program so that care, drugs and extra services are better coordinated than they would be across two separate cards.

Dallas County also has other Special Needs Plans for 2027: 15 Chronic Condition SNPs (C-SNPs) for people living with certain conditions, and 7 Institutional SNPs (I-SNPs) for people who live in a nursing facility or need that level of care. D-SNPs are the ones tied to dual eligibility.

Who qualifies: full versus partial dual eligibility

Qualifying for a D-SNP starts with two things: you must be enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B, and you must be getting help from Texas Medicaid. The level of Medicaid help you get determines which D-SNPs you can join.

• Full dual eligible — You have full Texas Medicaid benefits on top of Medicare. Medicaid may help pay your Medicare premiums and cost-sharing, and it also covers services Medicare does not, such as long-term services and supports.
• Partial dual eligible — You get help from one of the Medicare Savings Programs (for example, the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program), which pays certain Medicare costs but is not full Medicaid.

Some D-SNPs are built for full duals, and some are built for people in QMB-only or similar partial categories. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is the agency that confirms your current Medicaid category. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE or check your status on medicare.gov before you shop.

The 2027 D-SNP lineup in Dallas County

Seven carriers offer D-SNPs in Dallas County for 2027: Aetna (CVS Health) with 4 plans, Centene (WellCare) with 3, Elevance Health (Anthem) with 3, HealthSpring with 2, Humana with 3, Molina Healthcare of Texas, Inc. with 1, and UnitedHealthcare with 4.

Several plans are new or renamed for 2027. Among the new entries are Aetna Medicare QMB Only Care, three Wellpoint plans from Elevance (Dual Advantage Select, Dual Advantage Plus Select and Full Dual Advantage Select), HealthSpring TotalCare Plus, and three new UnitedHealthcare plans (UHC Dual Advantage TX-V11, UHC Dual Complete TX-Q6 and UHC Dual Complete TX-Y1). A handful of Aetna and Wellcare D-SNPs were renamed; the plan's Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) spells out what, if anything, changed inside.

The full roster of 2027 D-SNPs, with carrier and plan type, appears in the table below. Plan details — networks, drug lists, costs and extra benefits — are not shown here. For those, use the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov, call 1-800-MEDICARE, or ask the plan for its Evidence of Coverage.

How often a dual-eligible person can change plans

Most people with Medicare can only switch during set windows. People who have both Medicare and Medicaid — or who get the Part D low-income subsidy known as Extra Help — have more chances to change plans than their neighbors.

Under current rules, dual-eligible members generally get a monthly Special Enrollment Period to join an integrated D-SNP that matches their Medicaid status, or to drop a Medicare Advantage plan and go back to Original Medicare with a stand-alone Part D plan. These rules have been adjusted recently by CMS, and they can change again, so confirm what applies to your situation by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) before you move.

You can also always use the Annual Enrollment Period (Oct. 15 – Dec. 7, 2026) and the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (Jan. 1 – March 31, 2027).

What else is changing for 2027

Two Part D figures are already set by CMS for 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 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets, have not been announced yet. CMS typically publishes them in the fall. For most full-dual members, Medicaid helps with Part B costs anyway — but if you are a partial dual, those numbers will matter, and we will update as soon as CMS releases them.

Across the whole Dallas County Advantage market for 2027, 29 plans are not returning, 20 are new, and 9 have been renamed. If your current plan is one of them, read the ANOC your plan mailed you in September — it tells you exactly what is changing on January 1.

How to confirm your eligibility and shop

A simple order of operations:

1. Confirm your Medicaid status with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Ask whether you are a full dual or a partial dual (QMB, SLMB, QI). 2. Confirm your Medicare status at medicare.gov or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE. 3. Compare D-SNPs on the Medicare Plan Finder, filtering for Dual Special Needs Plans in Dallas County. Check the plan's drug list, network, and extra benefits against what you actually use. 4. Enroll by Dec. 7, 2026 for a January 1 start — or use your monthly dual Special Enrollment Period if that fits better.