Medicare Advantage

Medicare and Medicaid in Texas: 119 Dual Special Needs Plans for 2027

AUSTIN — For Texans who hold both a Medicare card and a Texas Medicaid letter, the 2027 plan year brings a wide field of Dual Special Needs Plans to review. According to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source File for CY2027, 119 of the 421 Medicare Advantage plans available statewide in Texas are D-SNPs. Alongside them, the Landscape lists 67 Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans (C-SNPs) and 7 Institutional Special Needs Plans (I-SNPs).

Those statewide totals count each plan once. In practice, a D-SNP is sold county by county, so a plan that appears on the statewide list may or may not be offered where you live. The full plan-by-plan table on this page shows which counties each plan serves.

What a D-SNP is and who qualifies

A Dual Special Needs Plan is a type of Medicare Advantage plan built specifically for people who have both Medicare and Medicaid. The plan coordinates the Medicare side of a person's coverage with the help they receive through Texas Medicaid, and it includes Part D prescription drug coverage.

Two broad groups of dually eligible Texans may qualify:

• Full-benefit dual eligibles, who receive the full range of Texas Medicaid benefits alongside Medicare.
• Partial-benefit dual eligibles, including people in Medicare Savings Program categories such as the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) group, where Medicaid helps with Medicare premiums and cost sharing but does not cover the full Medicaid benefit package.

Different D-SNPs are designed for different categories. For example, several plans in the statewide table use the words "Full Dual" in the name (such as the Aetna Medicare Full Dual Care and Wellpoint Full Dual Advantage product lines), while others use "QMB Only" (such as Aetna Medicare QMB Only Care). The important point for a reader is this: eligibility for any D-SNP has to be confirmed by the state Medicaid agency — in Texas, HHSC — based on your current Medicaid category. A plan cannot enroll you on its own say-so.

The statewide count and the carriers offering them

The CMS Landscape for 2027 lists D-SNPs from 13 carriers in Texas. In alphabetical order by carrier, they are: Aetna (CVS Health) with 13 plans; Alignment Health Plan with 2; Centene (WellCare) with 17; Community First with 2; Community Health Choice with 5; Devoted Health with 12; El Paso Health Medicare Advantage with 2; Elevance Health (Anthem) with 22; HealthSpring with 9; Humana with 6; Molina Healthcare of Texas, Inc. with 7; Prominence Health Plan with 3; and UnitedHealthcare with 19.

Comparing the current year's Landscape file to the 2027 file shows a mix of continuations, renames and new entries. Several Aetna plans carry the "Full Dual Care" and "Full Dual Extra Care" names after being renamed from earlier "Dual Care" and "Full Dual Care" labels, and Aetna's "QMB Only Care" line is marked new for 2027. On the Centene side, the Wellcare D-SNPs now appear under the "Wellcare Superior HealthPlan" naming — for example, Wellcare Superior HealthPlan Dual Access, Dual Liberty, Dual Liberty Sync, Dual Reserve and the new-for-2027 Dual Reserve Value. Elevance Health's Wellpoint-branded D-SNPs (Wellpoint Dual Advantage, Wellpoint Dual Advantage Plus, Wellpoint Full Dual Advantage and related plans) are marked new for 2027 across multiple county footprints. Community First, Community Health Choice, Devoted Health and El Paso Health Medicare Advantage also show new 2027 entries alongside returning ones.

The full name of each plan, its carrier, its Part D status and its county count are shown in the table on this page.

How often a dual-eligible person can change plans

Most Medicare beneficiaries use the Annual Enrollment Period, October 15 through December 7, 2026, for 2027 coverage; whatever you choose then starts on January 1, 2027.

People with both Medicare and Medicaid, however, generally have more flexibility. Under current CMS rules on Medicare enrollment periods, dually eligible individuals and others receiving Extra Help with Part D qualify for a Special Enrollment Period that lets them make a change once per calendar quarter during the first three quarters of the year (January–March, April–June, July–September). The fourth quarter is covered by the regular AEP. There is also a separate integrated-care SEP for aligning a D-SNP with Texas Medicaid managed care in certain situations.

The practical takeaway: you do not have to feel locked in on December 7. If your Medicaid status, your providers, or your medications change, you may have another chance to adjust.

Checking a plan in your county

Because D-SNPs are sold county by county, the only reliable way to see what is actually available at your address is to run the search yourself:

• Go to Medicare.gov and use the Plan Finder, entering your ZIP code and, when asked, indicating that you have Medicaid.
• Or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (TTY 1-877-486-2048).
• For the specific rules of any plan — cost sharing, provider networks, covered drugs, extra benefits and star ratings — read that plan's Evidence of Coverage, Summary of Benefits and provider and pharmacy directories, or confirm with the carrier directly.

The table on this page can help you narrow the list to plans whose county footprints include yours, but it is not a substitute for the Plan Finder, which pulls your personal drug list and preferred pharmacies into the comparison.

Free help

Unbiased, no-cost help with Medicare questions — including D-SNP eligibility and enrollment — is available directly from Medicare:

• Medicare.gov for the official Plan Finder and plan documents.
• 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), TTY 1-877-486-2048, around the clock.

For Medicaid eligibility questions specifically, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission is the agency that confirms your category.