Plan exits · West Michigan

PriorityMedicare Vital Ending in 2027: Grand Rapids Options

Vital, Priority Health's $0 PPO, has no 2027 version. Priority Health itself stays put in Kent and Ottawa counties, with four PPOs still on the shelf. The catch for a Vital member is the ceiling: both of Priority's remaining $0 PPOs cap your yearly in-network costs at $7,100 or more, while several $0 PPOs from other carriers cap them at $5,200.

Medicare On Main Data Desk

Published October 19, 2026 · 8 min read · Reviewed by Brian Penner

Sources: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files; CMS September 2026 enrollment.

On October 19 I lined up every Priority Health row in Michigan from the 2026 and 2027 federal plan files, matched them by plan number, and added member counts from CMS's September enrollment file. Medicare On Main is licensed in Michigan, and I help West Michigan clients by phone and video. Carrier and hospital names below are facts, not endorsements, and we do not offer every plan available in your area.

Is it really ending, or just renamed?

It's ending. Carriers often retire a plan name and fold its members into a sister plan, and CMS's file can't always tell you which happened. Here, two separate signals agree. The plan number, H4875-022, does not appear anywhere in the 2027 landscape file. And on Priority Health's own website, the Vital documents page carries 2026 and 2025 paperwork and nothing for 2027 (Priority Health), while the pages for Thrive and Edge already post their 2027 Annual Notices of Change (Priority Health).

The letter in your mailbox is the final word. A non-renewal notice says your plan won't be offered next year and explains your options. An Annual Notice of Change says your plan continues with new costs. If you have the first kind, read on.

The same is true of PriorityMedicare Vintage (HMO-POS), plan H2320-031, which had 3,390 members, including 1,285 in Kent County. In 2026 it cost $8.80 a month with a $5,600 cap. It has no 2027 row either. Priority's new Align (HMO-POS) sits at $6.30 with a $6,800 cap in the same counties, but nothing in the federal file links one to the other, so treat Align as one more plan to compare rather than as Vintage's successor.

What Priority Health still sells in Kent and Ottawa

If you liked dealing with Priority Health and want to stay, here's the 2027 lineup. Kent and Ottawa have identical Priority plans, premiums and caps:

Source: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files, Kent County, general (non-Special Needs) plans with drug coverage. 2027 overall Star Ratings: contract H4875 (the PPOs) 4 stars, H2320 (the HMO-POS plans) 4.5 stars (CMS, October 8, 2026). You also keep paying the Part B premium on any of these.

Every continuing Priority PPO raised its cap for 2027. Edge went from $6,000 to $7,100 and Thrive from $6,200 to $7,150. Thrive Plus rose to $66 a month with a $6,600 cap, and Merit to $100 with a $5,000 cap. Put Vital's $6,300 cap next to those and the trade is plain: staying with Priority at $0 means accepting $800 to $850 more of worst-case exposure. Paying $100 a month for Merit buys a lower ceiling than Vital had, at $1,200 a year in premiums.

Up north, the menu is shorter

Grand Rapids members have choices. Members in 14 of Vital's counties have far fewer. In Arenac, Bay, Huron, Isabella, Mason, Midland, Missaukee, Newaygo, Oceana, Ogemaw, Osceola, Otsego, Tuscola and Wexford, where CMS counted 3,408 Vital members, Priority Health's 2027 file has no Edge, Thrive or Thrive Plus at all. Its one PPO there is Merit, at $119 or $141 a month depending on the county. Its $0 option is a new HMO-POS called Latitude with a $9,850 cap, the federal maximum for 2027. If that's you, the other-carrier comparison and the Medigap option further down matter more than they do in Kent.

Corewell Health, and why the network comes before the price

Priority Health belongs to Corewell Health, the system formed from Spectrum Health and Beaumont; CMS's 2027 Star Ratings file lists Corewell Health as the parent of both Priority contracts. Many Vital members chose it for exactly that reason. West Michigan also has Trinity Health Grand Rapids, University of Michigan Health-West and a number of independent practices, and every plan on the list below draws its own lines around them.

A PPO generally pays something when you go out of network, at a higher cost (Medicare.gov on PPOs). An HMO-POS can cover some out-of-network services too, under rules set in each plan's Evidence of Coverage (Medicare.gov on HMOs). "Some coverage out of network" is not the same as "my surgeon is in network," though. Before enrolling anywhere, search the plan's 2027 provider directory for each doctor and hospital by name, then call the office and ask if they will accept that plan in 2027. CMS's plan files don't include networks, so that phone call is the only reliable check.

Every PPO drug plan in Kent and Ottawa for 2027

This is the whole shelf: 31 general PPO plans with Part D, sorted by premium and then by cap. Six are filed only in Kent County, including all of Devoted's and Zing's.

Sources: CMS CY2027 landscape file, general MA-PD plans with plan type PPO or Regional PPO in Kent or Ottawa County. Premiums shown are Kent County's; a few Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan premiums differ in Ottawa. Stars are 2027 overall ratings by contract (CMS Summary Ratings); Devoted's Michigan contract is too new to be rated. Giveback plans lower your Part B premium by an amount the landscape file doesn't show. A listing is not a recommendation.

Four $0 plans from Humana and Aetna carry a $5,200 cap, $1,100 below Vital's. HAP's Explore comes in at $6,050. Those numbers are a starting point only. A plan with a low cap can still have higher specialist copays, a steeper drug deductible or a network that leaves out your doctor, and none of that shows up in a federal spreadsheet. Read each finalist's Summary of Benefits and run your prescriptions through its 2027 formulary before deciding.

Every plan that left each county, from every carrier, is on our county pages for Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan, and on the Michigan statewide page.

The calendar for a Vital member

• October 15 to December 7: open enrollment for everyone. Pick a plan in this window and it starts January 1 (Medicare.gov).
• December 8 to December 31: because your plan is being discontinued, you have a Special Enrollment Period of your own (42 CFR § 422.62(b)(1)). Enrolling by the end of December still gets you a January 1 start.
• January 1: anyone who hasn't chosen lands in Original Medicare, without a Part D plan and without any annual limit on what they pay.
• January and February: the special window stays open through February 28, 2027, but coverage starts the first of the following month. That's one or two months without drug coverage.

A gap longer than 63 days without Part D or other creditable drug coverage can trigger the Part D late-enrollment penalty, which lasts as long as you have Part D. Choosing in December takes that risk off the table.

Leaving Medicare Advantage entirely

Some Vital members will look at the network maze and decide they'd rather not have a network at all. Original Medicare lets you see any provider in the country that takes Medicare. A Medigap policy covers most of the 20% and the deductibles, and a stand-alone Part D plan covers prescriptions.

The usual obstacle is underwriting: after your first six months on Part B, a Medigap company can ask health questions and decline you. A discontinued plan removes that obstacle for a while. Leaving a Medicare Advantage plan that is ending gives you a guaranteed-issue right, which you can use from 60 days before your coverage ends until 63 days after (Medicare.gov). For Vital that means November 1, 2026 through March 4, 2027. People first eligible for Medicare in 2020 or later can pick Plans A, B, D, G, K or L; those eligible earlier can also pick C or F. Hold on to the non-renewal letter, because the insurer may want a copy.

The cost is a monthly Medigap premium plus a drug plan premium, measured against a $0 PPO with a $5,200 to $7,150 ceiling. We'll run both for your age and ZIP code.

A short checklist for this week

1. Find H4875-022 (Vital) or H2320-031 (Vintage) on your card or letter. Any other Priority plan number means your plan continues and you received an Annual Notice of Change instead.
2. List your doctors, specialists, hospital and pharmacy, including anyone you expect to see in 2027.
3. Decide how much the Corewell Health connection matters to you. If it's essential, start with Priority's own Edge, Thrive and Merit and with directory checks on the other carriers.
4. Check each finalist's 2027 formulary for every drug, including its tier and any prior-authorization rule.
5. Enroll in December at the latest so coverage starts January 1.

How we know all this: the Medicare On Main Data Desk frames every article with public data. Here that means the CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files, compared by Contract Plan ID on October 19, 2026; the CMS September 2026 county enrollment file; the CMS 2027 Star Ratings data tables published October 8, 2026; Priority Health's public plan-document pages; 42 CFR § 422.62; and Medicare.gov's pages on PPOs, HMOs, enrollment periods and Medigap guaranteed issue. Networks, copays, formularies, giveback amounts and extra benefits are not in any CMS file and are not described. Your non-renewal letter and each plan's documents are the authority on those. Medicare On Main is a licensed independent insurance agency. We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to the plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options. Not connected with or endorsed by the U.S. government or the federal Medicare program. This is education, not advice.