Medicare and Health First Colorado · Western Slope 2027

Is UHC Dual Complete Changing in Grand Junction for 2027?

If you have both Medicare and Health First Colorado and live in Mesa County, the plan most of your neighbors are in is changing shape on January 1. It gets a new plan number, and for the first time joining it also signs you up for a Medicaid plan. Here is what CMS's 2027 files and UnitedHealthcare's own pages actually say, and what to check in the envelope.

Medicare On Main Data Desk

Published October 16, 2026 · 8 min read · Reviewed by Brian Penner, 22+ years in Medicare

Why the plan is changing: a 2027 federal rule

This is not a carrier deciding on its own to reshuffle. A federal rule written in 2024 takes effect for 2027. Under 42 CFR § 422.514(h), "beginning in 2027," a company that runs a D-SNP and also "contracts with a State as a Medicaid managed care organization" in the same area may offer only "one D-SNP for full-benefit dual eligible individuals," and "must limit new enrollment in the D-SNP to individuals enrolled in, or in the process of enrolling in, the Medicaid MCO."

That describes the Western Slope. UnitedHealthcare's PRIME page says RMHP PRIME is the Health First Colorado managed care plan for adults and people with disabilities in Delta, Garfield, Gunnison, Mesa, Montrose, Ouray, Pitkin, Rio Blanco and San Miguel counties, and that "Rocky Mountain Health Plans is the UnitedHealthcare Community Plan for Colorado." So UnitedHealthcare sells both a Medicare D-SNP and the Medicaid plan here, and for 2027 it has to line them up. The rule's word for this is aligned enrollment: the same parent company covering both your Medicare and your Medicaid.

A second date sits in the same rule. Beginning in 2030, these D-SNPs "may only enroll (or continue to cover)" people who are in the matching Medicaid plan. 2027 limits who can join; 2030 limits who can stay.

The two UHC Dual Complete plans for 2027

H0624-007, listed by CMS as UHC Dual Complete CO-S5 (HMO-POS D-SNP). UnitedHealthcare's 2027 plan page lists it in the same nine counties as PRIME and says: "Starting Jan. 1, 2027, joining this plan will also enroll you in Rocky Mountain Health Plans PRIME," for members in the full-benefit, QMB Plus and SLMB Plus groups, with "Integrated SEP available." (The web page's title calls it CO-Y1; UHC's printed 2027 guide and the CMS file call it CO-S5. Same plan number.) UnitedHealthcare's explainer on the 2027 changes says integrated plans issue "only one member ID card, rather than separate cards for Medicare and Medicaid coverage."

H0624-001, renamed from CO-S002 to CO-Q1. It continues, statewide, but its 2027 page says: "Starting Jan. 1, 2027, this plan isn't accepting full Medicaid recipients in PRIME counties." It had 348 Mesa County members in September. The federal rule limits new enrollment, so the page's wording speaks to people joining, not to people already in it; your 2027 Annual Notice of Change is the document that tells you whether you stay.

Every Mesa County D-SNP, 2026 to 2027

From CMS's 2026 and 2027 landscape files, matched by plan number, with September 2026 Mesa County enrollment from CMS's county enrollment file:

Sources: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files (Special Needs Plan = Yes, dual-eligible), CMS CPSC enrollment September 2026 (counts under 11 are suppressed by CMS). "No 2027 listing" means the plan number appears nowhere in the 2027 file, in any county. The Longevity Health institutional plan (H0363-001) is not a D-SNP and is left out.

Three things in the 2027 columns of the CMS file are the same on all ten plans: an in-network out-of-pocket limit of $9,850 (it was $9,250 on most 2026 plans), a premium of $0 to $18.40 before Extra Help, and a low-income premium of $0.00. Eight of the ten are also marked as plans where Medicare-covered services cost the member $0. The integration column is where they differ: H0624-007 is "Highly Integrated (HIDE)"; the other nine are "Coordination Only."

The HealthSpring pair is the one to read carefully. The same two plan names, TotalCare and TotalCare Plus, appear in 2027 under a different contract number, H2752. A new number with the same name is often a carrier moving members between its own contracts, but the file cannot tell you that. Your letter can. Our post on telling a discontinued plan from a changed one walks through the wording.

Delta, Montrose and the rest of the Western Slope

The shelf shrinks more outside Grand Junction. D-SNPs offered by county:

Source: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files, dual-eligible SNP rows by county.

Both Aetna plans that continue in Mesa County, H3931-175 and H3931-196, leave Delta and Montrose. In Montrose the 2027 choices are the two UHC plans and two HumanaChoice SNP-DE plans. CO-S4 had 384 members in Montrose, 204 in Delta, 399 in Garfield and 60 in Rio Blanco in September, so the plan-number change reaches well beyond the Grand Valley.

When you can change: the monthly rules, read closely

People with Medicaid hear that they "can change plans every month." The federal rule is narrower than that, and there are two separate pieces in 42 CFR § 423.38:

• The integrated-plan door, § 423.38(c)(35). A full-benefit dual can make "a one-time-per month election into" a fully integrated D-SNP, a "highly integrated dual eligible special needs plan," or an applicable integrated plan. The rule adds: "The SEP is available only to facilitate aligned enrollment." In Mesa County for 2027, the only plan CMS lists as highly integrated is H0624-007.
• The drug-plan door, § 423.38(c)(4). Anyone with full or partial Extra Help can make "a one-time-per month election into a PDP," a stand-alone drug plan. Choosing one takes you out of Medicare Advantage and back to Original Medicare with Medicaid as your secondary coverage.

Neither door is a general monthly switch between ordinary D-SNPs. For that, the usual windows apply: Open Enrollment from October 15 to December 7 for a January 1 start, and January 1 to March 31 for one change if you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan. If your plan is not renewed, the non-renewal letter also gives you a Special Enrollment Period.

Moved, or ending? How to read your envelope

The same federal section covers a carrier moving D-SNP members. Under § 422.514(e), a carrier may move members into another of its plans, "including into a dual eligible special needs plan for enrollees who are eligible for such a plan," of "the same plan type," and for 2027 the receiving plan must itself be a D-SNP. That can happen "without requiring the individual to file the election form," but only if the receiving plan describes the change in the Annual Notice of Change. Anyone the carrier does not move must get "a written notice" under the non-renewal rule.

1. Find the plan name and number for 2027 in the letter. An Annual Notice of Change that names H0624-007 or CO-S5 means you were moved. Check that the letter says you will be enrolled in PRIME too, and that your PRIME status is current.
2. A letter that says your plan "will not be offered" is a non-renewal. Nothing happens automatically for 2027; you choose a plan or return to Original Medicare. Our Annual Notice of Change post shows both letters side by side.
3. Check St. Mary's, Community Hospital and your clinic in the 2027 directory of whatever plan you end up in. A plan number change can come with a network change.
4. Keep your Health First Colorado renewal current. A D-SNP depends on your Medicaid, so a lapse in Medicaid affects the plan too.

The general-plan side of the 2027 changes, ten Mesa County plans ending, is on our Mesa County plan-exit page, and every 2027 plan in the county is on our Grand Junction 2027 plan list. What a D-SNP is, and how Extra Help and the Medicare Savings Programs fit, is in our earlier Grand Junction D-SNP guide.

I have spent more than 22 years helping people on Medicare and Medicaid sort out letters like these. The 2027 change is a real shift in how Western Slope dual plans work, and nobody should have to decode it alone.

How we know all this: the Medicare On Main Data Desk frames every article with public data. Here that means CMS's CY2026 and CY2027 Medicare Advantage landscape files (September 2026 releases), compared by plan number for Mesa, Delta, Montrose, Garfield and Rio Blanco counties; CMS's September 2026 county enrollment file; 42 CFR §§ 422.2, 422.514 and 423.38 as published on Cornell LII; and UnitedHealthcare's 2027 plan pages, its 2027 guide for H0624-007, its PRIME page and its 2027 D-SNP explainer, all read October 16, 2026. Carrier names are factual reporting, not endorsement. Medicare On Main is not affiliated with Health First Colorado or RMHP. This is education, not advice. Confirm your own plan with your 2027 letter, Medicare.gov or Health First Colorado, and compare plans with a licensed agent. We take no payment from any carrier to feature a plan.