Newsroom · Utah

Is Humana Value Choice (PPO) Ending in Utah for 2027?

Yes, if your card says H5216-456. That plan was sold in twelve Utah counties in 2026, had 22,989 members in September, and has no row anywhere in the CMS 2027 file. But three other Humana plans carry the same name for 2027, one of them brand new, and whether you were moved or simply ended is a question your letter answers and the plan file cannot. Here is how to read both.

Medicare On Main Data Desk

Published October 6, 2026 · 9 min read · Reviewed by Brian Penner

This is the Salt Lake question we flagged in our first pass at the 2027 file and promised to come back to. When we compared the Utah shelves plan number by plan number (all 28 counties, then Salt Lake County and its PPOs), one row did not behave like the others. HealthSpring's two plans and Select Health Medicare + Kroger simply vanished. Humana Value Choice H5216-456 vanished too, and a plan with the same name and a new number appeared in most of the same counties. That is either a plan being replaced with its members moved along, or a plan ending with a look-alike on the shelf, and the two carry completely different rights. Carrier names here are factual reporting, not endorsement; we do not offer every plan available in your area.

Four plans, one name

Humana sells more than one plan called Value Choice in Utah, under two different contracts, and the 2027 file moves the name around. Match by number, never by name.

Source: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files, Utah rows, compared by Contract ID and Plan ID on October 6, 2026. "Cap" is the in-network maximum out-of-pocket. 2027 Star Ratings are blank in the file until CMS publishes them in October. Copays, networks and formularies are not in the file. Listing a plan is not a recommendation.

The first thing to do is look at your card. If the contract number is H7617, your Value Choice plan is not ending; its cap drops from $5,800 to $5,000 and its drug deductible rises from $615 to $700, and the Annual Notice of Change you got in September is the whole story. If it is H5216 and the plan number is 456, keep reading.

County by county: where the new number is, and where it is not

Sources: the two landscape files above; CMS Monthly Enrollment by Contract/Plan/State/County, September 2026 (counties with fewer than 11 members are suppressed; H5216-456 also had suppressed counts in Box Elder, Carbon, Garfield, Sanpete and Sevier). "All general plans" counts Medicare Advantage drug plans that are not Special Needs Plans.

Three groups fall out of that table. 19,282 members in seven counties have a plan on the shelf with the same name, the same $0 premium, a lower $5,000 cap and a higher $700 drug deductible, which is roughly the trade the whole Utah market made this year (see every Salt Lake plan ranked by cap). About 2,500 members in Iron and Washington see the name land on H5216-428, which was HumanaChoice last year and keeps its $6,750 cap; if you were on the $27 segment of 456 there, 428 is a different plan with a different history, not your plan with a new badge. And about 1,200 members in Summit, Tooele and Wasatch have no Value Choice plan at all for 2027; Humana's general shelf in each of those counties goes from four plans to three, the $0 option being Essentials Plus Giveback with a $5,750 cap. We covered Tooele's shrinking shelf in the Tooele, Box Elder and Morgan post.

Crosswalk or non-renewal? What the rule says, and what only the letter can

CMS has a word for moving members from one plan to another without their asking: a crosswalk. 42 CFR § 422.530 defines it as "the movement of enrollees from one plan (or plan benefit package (PBP)) to another plan (or PBP) under a contract between the MA organization and CMS," and then limits when it may happen. A renewal "must retain the same plan ID as the current contract year plan." A consolidated renewal, which merges two or more plans, must keep a plan ID that "must be the same as one of the current contract year plan IDs." A service-area change keeps the same ID and, where counties are dropped, members there "must be disenrolled" and get "a non-renewal notice that includes notification of a special enrollment period under § 422.62 and, for applicable enrollees, Medigap guaranteed issue rights." Everything else is an exception: "In order to perform a crosswalk that is not specified in paragraph (b) of this section, an MA organization must request an exception," and the exceptions CMS lists are about private fee-for-service plans, parent-company contract mergers and dual-eligible Special Needs Plans.

Apply that to the numbers. H5216-471 did not exist in 2026, so it cannot be a renewal of 456 and cannot be the surviving ID of a consolidation. Under the rule as written, a routine move of 456 members into 471 is not on the allowed list. That does not make it impossible; CMS can grant exceptions, and the public file does not show whether one was requested or granted. It does mean the default reading of "my plan number disappeared and a new one appeared" is non-renewal, and the burden is on the letter to say otherwise. Humana told the trade press it expects to "recapture roughly 40% of affected members by moving them into other plans it offers" (Insurance Business America, August 31), which is the language of members choosing a Humana plan during Open Enrollment, not of automatic transfers. We linked the general version of this question for Mesa County readers last month (discontinued or just changing?); this is the Utah case where it actually bites.

Sources: Medicare.gov, Plan Annual Notice of Change; Medicare.gov, Plan Non-Renewal Notice; 42 CFR § 422.506 (90 days' notice); § 422.530. The non-renewal letter may list other Humana plans in your county, including H5216-471; listing is an invitation to enroll, not an enrollment.

If it is a non-renewal, the three doors

• Door 1: another Medicare Advantage plan, October 15 – December 7. Any plan on your county's 2027 shelf, Humana or otherwise, including H5216-471 or H7617-032 where they are sold. Compare the cap, the drug deductible, your doctors and your prescriptions in the 2027 directory and formulary, not the 2026 ones. The new coverage starts January 1 (Medicare.gov).
• Door 2: Original Medicare plus Medigap plus a drug plan. Per Medicare.gov, a discontinued plan gives you the right to buy Plan A, B, D, G, K or L (C or F if you were eligible before 2020) with no health questions, applying from 60 days before to 63 days after the plan ends: November 1, 2026 – March 4, 2027. Keep the October 2 letter as proof. No network, no cap on the Medigap side beyond the letter's own design, a monthly premium instead. You will need a stand-alone Part D plan, chosen by December 7.
• Door 3: the Special Enrollment Period, December 8 – February 28. 42 CFR § 422.62(b)(1). It exists so a missed December 7 is not a lost year, but a January enrollment starts February 1, and January is spent in Original Medicare with no drug coverage and no cap.

If instead your letter says you were moved to H5216-471, you have Door 1 only, and you should read 471 as a plan you are choosing: a $5,000 cap is $800 better than 456's $5,800, the $700 drug deductible is $85 worse, and the PPO network for 2027 is in Humana's directory, not in any CMS file.

The calendar from here

What I would do this week

1. Read the card. H7617-032: your plan continues; check the new $5,000 cap and $700 deductible in the ANOC and stop here. H5216-456: continue.
2. Read the first page of the October letter. "Will not be offered" or "non-renewal" means the three doors are open. "You have been enrolled in" or "moved to" means a crosswalk; keep that letter, it is unusual.
3. If you are in Summit, Tooele, Wasatch, Iron or Washington, do not look for Value Choice. Shop the whole county shelf, and price the Medigap door against it; the plan you liked is not there under any number.
4. If you are in the seven counties with H5216-471, compare it like a stranger. Same name is not same network or same formulary. Run your doctors and drugs through the 2027 tools before December 7.
5. Enroll between October 15 and December 7. CMS honors the last enrollment request, so an early choice can still be changed inside the window.

How we know all this: the Medicare On Main Data Desk frames every article with public data — here, the CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files compared by Contract ID and Plan ID on October 6, 2026, the CMS September 2026 county enrollment file, the text of 42 CFR §§ 422.530, 422.506 and 422.62, Medicare.gov's pages on the Annual Notice of Change, the Plan Non-Renewal Notice, enrollment periods and Medigap guaranteed-issue rights, and Insurance Business America's August 31 report on Humana's 2027 non-renewals. Mentioning a carrier is factual reporting, not endorsement or criticism; "the plan is being discontinued" is a description of the file, not a judgment. Whether any member was crosswalked is known only from that member's own letter. This is education, not advice; confirm plans, networks, costs and eligibility with the plan, a licensed agent or Medicare.gov. We take no payment from any carrier to feature a plan.