Plan discontinued · San Diego County, California

Sharp Direct Advantage Non-Renewal Letter: What It Must Say

Most people read the first paragraph, see "December 31," and put the letter in a drawer. It is worth ten more minutes. Federal regulation sets what the notice has to deliver and when, California law adds a requirement of its own, and the same piece of paper is the proof you hand a Medigap insurer if you go that way. Here is what the rules require, what they do not, and how to tell this letter from the two other things in your mailbox.

Medicare On Main Data Desk

Published October 11, 2026 · 8 min read · Reviewed by Brian Penner

The four individual Sharp Direct Advantage plans, Gold, Platinum, VIP and VIP Plus, had 17,247 San Diego County members in September, and none of the four appears in the CMS plan file for 2027. The first post in this series covers what the file shows, and the calendar post puts every date in order. This one is about the letter itself. One caution before we start: we have read the regulation, the California statute and Medicare.gov's own description of the notice, and we quote them below. We have not reproduced Sharp Health Plan's letter, and where yours says something specific about your plan, your letter is the authority.

What the rules require the notice to deliver

Sources: 42 CFR § 422.506(a)(2) as published by Cornell's Legal Information Institute; California Insurance Code § 10192.12(f)(1). Read October 11, 2026.

The federal paragraph is short enough to quote whole. A Medicare Advantage organization that does not intend to renew must notify "each Medicare enrollee by mail at least 90 calendar days before the date on which the nonrenewal is effective," and "must also provide information about alternative enrollment options by doing one or more of the following: (A) Provide a CMS approved written description of alternative MA plan, MA-PD plan, and PDP options available for obtaining qualified Medicare services within the beneficiaries' region. (B) Place outbound calls to all affected enrollees to ensure beneficiaries know who to contact to learn about their enrollment options" (42 CFR § 422.506).

Two details in that paragraph matter in practice. The first is "one or more." A plan can meet the rule with a written description, with phone calls, or with both, so a call from your current plan about your options this month can be a legitimate part of the process. Your plan already has your Medicare number, so be wary of any caller who needs you to read it out to "verify" it. The second is the phrase "CMS approved." The written description of alternatives is reviewed by Medicare before it is mailed. That makes it reliable as a list. It does not make it a recommendation, and nothing on it has been checked against your doctors or your prescriptions.

Why the date is October 2

Ninety calendar days before January 1, 2027 is early October, and the notices across the industry carry the same date. UnitedHealthcare's public notice to its own provider network about its 2027 changes, for example, says it "will send non-renewal notices dated Oct. 2, 2026, to affected members" (UnitedHealthcare provider FAQ). The plan itself has known much longer. The same regulation requires notice to CMS "by the first Monday in June of the year in which the contract would end," which this year was June 1. Members hear in the fall mailing: plans may not begin marketing next year's offerings until October 1 (42 CFR § 422.2263), and the notice is dated a day later.

If your letter arrived on the 6th or the 9th, nothing is wrong. The rule is about when the notice is given, and none of your enrollment windows are measured from the day it landed. They are measured from the calendar and from December 31. The one exception is California's Medigap right, which is next.

The paragraph California requires

Federal law gives a member of a discontinued plan the right to buy a Medigap policy with no health questions if they return to Original Medicare; Medicare.gov sets the window at "60 days before your Medicare Advantage Plan coverage ends" and "No more than 63 days after," which is November 1, 2026 through March 4, 2027. California wrote the same right into its own code and attached it to the letter in three ways (Insurance Code § 10192.12):

• The plan has to tell you. The organization ending the plan "shall notify the individual of his or her rights under this section and of the obligations of issuers of Medicare supplement policies," and "the notice shall be communicated contemporaneously with the notification of termination." That is why a letter about a Medicare Advantage plan has a passage about Medicare supplement insurance in it.
• The letter starts the clock. In California "the guaranteed issue period begins on the date that the individual receives a notice of termination and ends 63 days after the date the applicable coverage is terminated." The state window is already open. It closes March 4, the same day as the federal one, and a Medigap policy still cannot start before January 1.
• The letter is the evidence. The statute describes eligible people as those "who submit evidence of the date of termination or disenrollment" with the application. Medicare.gov says the same thing in plainer words: "Keep any letters, notices, emails or claim denials from your previous coverage, in case you need to prove your coverage ended. You may need to include copies of these documents with your new Medigap application."

The plan letters you can buy under each law, the Plan G versus Plan N choice and California's separate birthday rule are in can I get Medigap without health questions in California?. The point for today is simpler: make two copies of the letter and put the original somewhere you will find it in November.

Three mailings, and only one of them is this

October is the heaviest mail month of the Medicare year, and the non-renewal notice is easy to confuse with what arrives around it. Medicare.gov lists the two official plan mailings separately:

Sources: Medicare.gov, Plan Annual Notice of Change; Medicare.gov, Plan Non-Renewal Notice; 42 CFR § 422.2263.

The difference is not a technicality. An Annual Notice of Change comes from a plan you can stay in, so doing nothing keeps you covered. A non-renewal notice comes from a plan that will not exist for you on January 1, so doing nothing sends you to Original Medicare without a drug plan. Our post on the Annual Notice of Change walks through that letter, and this one prices what doing nothing costs a Sharp member. If you hold a letter and cannot tell which kind it is, look for the sentence about your plan not being offered next year. An Annual Notice of Change never says that.

What the letter is not required to tell you

The regulation sets a floor. Five things a Sharp Direct Advantage member needs sit above it, and you should not expect a notice to supply them:

1. Which 2027 plans include your doctors. A description of alternative plans is a list of plans, not a network check. Sharp Rees-Stealy and Sharp Community Medical Group contract separately, and the doctors post shows how to verify each one for 2027.
2. How your prescriptions are covered elsewhere. Formularies and tiers live in each plan's own documents and in Medicare Plan Finder's drug lookup.
3. That the backstop window slides. The Special Enrollment Period for a discontinued plan runs December 8 through February 28, but CMS's 2027 enrollment guidance ties the start date to the month your request arrives: December requests start January 1, January requests start February 1, February requests start March 1. December 31 is the real wall.
4. That California's birthday rule is not yours yet. It is a right for people who already hold a Medigap policy. This year your right is the guaranteed-issue one the letter triggers.
5. Anything about the CalPERS plan. The group version of Sharp Direct Advantage, with 2,450 San Diego County members in September, continues for 2027 and is covered in its own post.

None of this is a criticism of the notice or of Sharp Health Plan. A single letter cannot check 17,000 people's doctors. The plan is being discontinued, Sharp's hospitals and medical groups are not, and no one is losing Medicare.

If the letter never came, or you cannot find it

The rule is a letter to each enrollee by mail, so a missing letter usually means an old address on file with the plan. Three ways to settle it:

• Call the member number on your Sharp Direct Advantage card. Ask whether your plan is offered in 2027 and ask for a copy of the notice. A replacement serves the same purpose as the original.
• Check Medicare Plan Finder for 2027. The four individual Sharp Direct Advantage plans are not listed. The CMS file behind it has four Sharp Health Plan rows for San Diego County in 2026 and none in 2027.
• Call 1-800-MEDICARE. They can see your current enrollment and tell you whether it continues into the new year.

If you moved within San Diego County this year, update your address with the plan now even though it is ending. The confirmation of whatever you choose next, and any replacement letter, will follow the address on file.

What I would do with the letter this week

1. Read all of it once, with a pen. Circle the plan name, the end date and any phone number. Confirm the plan name matches your card.
2. Find the Medicare supplement passage. California law says it should be there. If you cannot find it, call the plan and ask.
3. Copy it twice. One for a Medigap application if you go that way, one for whoever helps you with paperwork.
4. Treat the list of alternatives as a starting list. Check your own doctors and drugs against each plan before you weigh premiums.
5. Pick a door by the end of October and enroll in early November, so that December 7 is a formality. The week-by-week calendar lays that out.

How we know all this: the Medicare On Main Data Desk frames every article with public data — here, 42 CFR §§ 422.506 and 422.2263 as published by Cornell's Legal Information Institute, California Insurance Code § 10192.12, Medicare.gov's Plan Non-Renewal Notice, Plan Annual Notice of Change and When can I buy a Medigap policy? pages, the CMS CY 2027 Enrollment and Disenrollment Guidance, UnitedHealthcare's public provider FAQ on its own 2027 notices, the CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files and the CMS September 2026 enrollment file by contract, plan and county, all read October 5 through October 11, 2026. We could not retrieve CMS's model notice wording and have not seen the text of Sharp Health Plan's letter, so neither is quoted; your own letter governs. Carrier, plan and health-system names are factual reporting, not endorsement; the plan is being discontinued and no member is losing Medicare. 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; confirm your own dates and rights with your plan, a licensed agent or Medicare.gov.