Plan guide · Utah

Medicare Advantage Plans Without Part D in Utah for 2027

Six medical-only Medicare Advantage plans are listed for Utah in 2027, down from seven. The one that left, Regence Valiance, had the lowest cap of the group in twelve counties. Who these plans are built for, the rule that makes them a one-way door, and what the 2027 file shows county by county.

Medicare On Main Data Desk

Published October 6, 2026 · 8 min read · Reviewed by Brian Penner

A medical-only Medicare Advantage plan is for someone who already has drug coverage and wants Part A and B wrapped into a plan with a cap and extras, without paying for a drug benefit twice. In Utah that is a specific set of people: veterans using VA pharmacies, military retirees on TRICARE For Life around Hill Air Force Base, federal retirees keeping an FEHB or PSHB plan, and some retirees with union or employer drug coverage. It is a small shelf — seven plans in 2026, six for 2027 — and this fall it changed. Carrier names below are factual reporting from the CMS files, not endorsement or criticism.

What changed for 2027

Source: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files, Utah rows, Contract Category Type MA, compared by Contract Plan ID on October 6, 2026.

Valiance was the medical-only plan with the lowest in-network cap in the state — $4,500 against $5,100 for the next-lowest — and the only one from a Utah-based carrier other than Select Health. Its exit is a non-renewal, not a county pull-back: the plan number appears nowhere in the 2027 file. Regence continues Regence MedAdvantage + Rx Classic (PPO) and Enhanced (PPO), both of which include drug coverage, so a Valiance member who stays with Regence would be buying a Part D benefit alongside whatever drug coverage they already have. That is allowed; it is just worth doing on purpose. The letter you received is a non-renewal notice, not an Annual Notice of Change, and the two look alike.

The second change is quieter. Aetna Medicare Eagle (PPO) stays at $0 and a $6,500 cap but drops ten counties — Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Duchesne, Iron, Juab, Morgan, Rich, Summit and Tooele — and is sold only in Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties for 2027. An Eagle member in Cedar City or Tooele gets the same October 2 letter a Valiance member does, because for them the plan is gone from the county.

The six medical-only plans listed for Utah in 2027

Source: CMS CY2027 landscape file, Utah, Contract Category Type MA, SNP indicator No. $0 is the plan premium; Part B is still owed. The file carries no copays, networks or extra benefits; those are in each plan's Evidence of Coverage and on Medicare Plan Compare. 2027 star ratings are not yet published. Listing a plan is not a recommendation.

Two names deserve a note. The Humana USAA Honor Giveback plans and UnitedHealthcare's Patriot plan are marketed to veterans and typically carry a Part B premium giveback; the amount is a plan benefit the landscape file does not show, so read it from the plan's own documents, not from this post. And Select Health Medicare Veterans is not a new plan — it is plan H1994-016, sold as Select Health Medicare NoRx in 2026, with the same $6,700 cap in the same four counties. A name change under the same number is a renewal; members are not moved anywhere.

County by county

Source: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files, Utah, Contract Category Type MA, SNP indicator No, counted by county. 27 of Utah's 29 counties have at least one medical-only plan in both years; Daggett and Wayne have none. Counties not shown held four plans both years (Beaver, Emery, Garfield, Kane, Millard) or three (Piute).

The Wasatch Front loses one plan per county and keeps five or six. The counties that feel it are the ones where both Valiance and Eagle were sold — Box Elder, Cache, Tooele, Morgan, Summit, Iron — which drop from six medical-only plans to four, all four from Humana or UnitedHealthcare. Grand and San Juan counties were never in either plan's footprint and hold at four.

The one rule that makes this a one-way door

Medicare.gov's plan-type comparison says it in a sentence: if you join an HMO or PPO that doesn't offer drug coverage, you can't get a separate Medicare drug plan (Compare types of Medicare Advantage Plans). The exceptions — Private Fee-for-Service and Medical Savings Account plans — do not appear in Utah's 2027 file. So a medical-only plan is only sensible when your drug coverage comes from somewhere that will still be there in July:

• VA health care. VA.gov: "There's no penalty for delaying Medicare Part D as long as you enroll when you're first eligible or within 63 days of when you no longer have VA health care or other creditable prescription drug coverage." VA drug coverage is creditable; it works only at VA pharmacies and the VA mail-order service, which is the trade-off. See also our page on veterans and Medicare.
• TRICARE For Life. Its pharmacy program is creditable coverage, so Part D is optional for military retirees (TRICARE FAQ); we covered the whole handoff in TRICARE For Life and Medicare in Utah. Note that TRICARE For Life itself requires Part B and pairs with Original Medicare; adding any Advantage plan on top is a decision to make with the TRICARE rules in front of you.
• FEHB / PSHB and employer retiree plans that send you a creditable-coverage notice each fall. Keep the notice; it is what proves the months count if you ever enroll in Part D.

If none of those describes you, a medical-only plan is the wrong shelf: going 63 days or more without creditable drug coverage starts the Part D late-enrollment penalty clock (Medicare.gov), and it is permanent.

If you are a Regence Valiance member

Your plan ends December 31, 2026. Your Medicare does not. Federal rules required your non-renewal letter to be mailed at least 90 days ahead (42 CFR § 422.506), which is why it is dated October 2. Three doors, in the order I would think about them:

1. Another medical-only plan. In the twelve Valiance counties that means the UnitedHealthcare Patriot HMO-POS ($7,150 cap), the three Humana USAA PPOs ($5,100 to $9,150), and in Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties the Aetna Eagle PPO ($6,500) and the Select Health Medicare Veterans HMO ($6,700). Every one carries a higher cap than Valiance's $4,500; the $5,100 Humana PPO is the closest. Compare the network against your non-VA doctors first. Enroll October 15 – December 7 for a January 1 start (Medicare.gov).
2. A Medicare Advantage plan that includes Part D. Allowed alongside VA or TRICARE drug coverage, and it opens the far larger shelf — every Salt Lake County PPO for 2027, for example. You would be paying for a drug benefit you may rarely use, but on a $0-premium plan that cost is inside the plan design, not a separate bill.
3. Original Medicare plus Medigap, no drug plan. The exit gives you a guaranteed-issue right to Medigap Plan A, B, D, G, K or L with no health questions, applying 60 days before to 63 days after your coverage ends — November 1, 2026 to March 4, 2027 (Medicare.gov). No network, so VA care and any Medicare doctor both work. Utah's birthday rule then lets you adjust the plan letter each year without underwriting.

Miss December 7 and you still have a Special Enrollment Period from December 8 through February 28 (42 CFR § 422.62) — but a plan chosen in January starts February 1, and January would be Original Medicare with no cap. For a veteran whose drugs are covered either way, that gap is smaller than for most people; it is still a gap.

What I would do this week

1. Confirm your drug coverage is still yours in 2027. VA priority group, TRICARE eligibility, or the retiree plan's creditable-coverage notice. The medical-only shelf only works if that answer is yes.
2. List your non-VA doctors. That is the network question these plans are really answering; the VA side is unaffected by which plan you pick.
3. Check your county in the table. If you are in Box Elder, Cache, Tooele, Morgan, Summit or Iron, your medical-only choices are now from two carriers.
4. Decide Advantage versus Medigap before comparing plans. If you lean Medigap, the window opens November 1; waiting for December gains nothing.
5. Wait for stars, not for plans. CMS publishes 2027 star ratings this month; everything else you need to compare is already public.

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 Plan ID, Medicare.gov's plan-type comparison and penalty pages, VA.gov's Medicare guidance, TRICARE's Part D FAQ, and the federal rules on non-renewal notices, enrollment periods and Medigap guaranteed-issue rights. Mentioning a carrier is factual reporting, not endorsement or criticism. This is education, not advice; confirm plans, costs and eligibility with a licensed agent or Medicare.gov. We take no payment from any carrier to feature a plan.