Medicare Advantage

C-SNPs in El Paso for 2027: how Chronic Condition plans work and who qualifies

El Paso County has 89 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 18 plans are not coming back, 16 are new, and 48 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 19 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for El Paso, not which plan to pick.

EL PASO — This fall, people on Medicare in El Paso County are looking over their choices for 2027 coverage. One slice of the market gets less attention than the rest: Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans, or C-SNPs. These are Medicare Advantage plans built for people living with a specific long-term illness, and the lineup here is changing for next year.

El Paso is in El Paso County, where CMS data shows 15 of the 89 Medicare Advantage plans available for 2027 are C-SNPs. Six carriers offer them. A few plans are new, a few names have changed, and the rules on who can join have not.

What a C-SNP is, in plain terms

A Chronic Condition Special Needs Plan is a type of Medicare Advantage plan. Like other Advantage plans, it covers your Part A and Part B services and includes Part D drug coverage. What makes it different is who it is for: everyone enrolled has the same qualifying chronic condition, or one of a short list of related conditions.

Because the member group is narrower, the plan is allowed to shape its drug list, provider network and care support around that condition. The trade-off is that you must have the condition to join and stay enrolled.

Who can join

CMS limits C-SNP enrollment to people with a qualifying chronic condition. The condition has to be confirmed by a licensed provider — usually with a form the plan sends to your doctor's office after you apply. If the provider does not verify the diagnosis within the plan's time limit, the enrollment does not go through.

You also need to have Medicare Part A and Part B and live in the plan's service area, which for the plans below means El Paso County (some plans cover a wider region).

A plan's name sometimes tells you the condition it serves — for example, a name that says "Diabetes and Heart" or "Kidney Care." For plans with more general names, the condition set is spelled out in the plan documents, and the plan can confirm whether your diagnosis qualifies.

The Special Enrollment Period for a qualifying condition

Most people can only switch Medicare Advantage plans during set windows: the Annual Enrollment Period (Oct. 15 – Dec. 7) and the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (Jan. 1 – March 31).

People who qualify for a C-SNP get an added Special Enrollment Period tied to the chronic condition. In practice, that means you can enroll in a C-SNP outside the usual windows once you have a qualifying diagnosis. If you later lose eligibility — for example, the condition no longer qualifies under the plan's rules — you get a separate window to move to another Medicare Advantage plan or back to Original Medicare.

The 15 C-SNPs offered in El Paso County for 2027

Six carriers are offering C-SNPs in the county next year: Aetna (CVS Health), Alignment Health Plan, Devoted Health, Elevance Health (Anthem), Humana and UnitedHealthcare. The table below lists every plan. In alphabetical order by carrier:

• Aetna (CVS Health): Aetna Medicare Chronic Care Total (HMO C-SNP) — new for 2027
• Alignment Health Plan: Alignment Health Heart & Diabetes 002 (HMO-POS C-SNP) — renamed; Alignment Health Heart & Diabetes Plus 004 (HMO-POS C-SNP) — renamed
• Devoted Health: DEVOTED C-SNP 027 TX (HMO C-SNP); DEVOTED C-SNP ENHANCED 028 TX (HMO C-SNP) — renamed; DEVOTED C-SNP GIVEBACK EXTRAS 086 TX (HMO C-SNP) — new for 2027; DEVOTED C-SNP PLUS 029 TX (HMO C-SNP)
• Elevance Health (Anthem): Wellpoint Chronic Care Advantage (HMO C-SNP) — new for 2027; Wellpoint Kidney Care (HMO-POS C-SNP)
• Humana: Humana Gold Plus - Diabetes and Heart (HMO C-SNP); Humana Gold Plus - Diabetes and Heart (HMO C-SNP); Humana Gold Plus - Diabetes and Heart (HMO C-SNP) — new for 2027
• UnitedHealthcare: UHC Complete Care Support TX-2A (HMO-POS C-SNP) — new for 2027; UHC Complete Care TX-17 (HMO-POS C-SNP); UHC Complete Care TX-29 (Regional PPO C-SNP)

The county's other Special Needs Plans are a separate category: 28 D-SNPs (for people with both Medicare and Medicaid) and 4 I-SNPs (for people living in a nursing facility or needing that level of care). Those are not covered here.

What to do this fall

The Annual Enrollment Period runs Oct. 15 – Dec. 7, 2026. Any change you make takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. If you do nothing, your current plan renews — with whatever adjustments appear in the Annual Notice of Change your plan mails each fall. Read that notice before you decide to stay put.

Two program-level changes to be aware of for 2027: the Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 (from $2,100 in 2026), and the Part D maximum deductible rises to $700 (from $615 in 2026). CMS publishes the 2027 Part B premium and deductible and the IRMAA income brackets later in the fall.

If you think a C-SNP might fit, the next step is to confirm your diagnosis qualifies for a specific plan — the plan can tell you — and to ask your doctor's office to be ready to verify it.