Humana’s individual Medicare Advantage members lost in-network access to Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, The James Cancer Center and OSU-affiliated physicians on Oct. 1, and the medical center says the affected patients have until Oct. 31 to pick a different plan that starts Nov. 1. That one-time special election closes about two weeks after Medicare’s regular Open Enrollment opens on Oct. 15. Humana’s group Medicare and Medicaid members were not affected, so patients of the same hospital now sit in very different positions depending on how they got their coverage.
Anyone on a Humana individual Medicare Advantage plan who sees Ohio State doctors, or who expects to need The James for cancer care, is working against a hard date. The special election ends Oct. 31, and a plan chosen inside it takes effect Nov. 1, 2026. Patients who stay in the Humana plan keep in-network treatment at Ohio State only through Dec. 31, and the medical center tells patients who want to keep getting care there that they must be in a different plan by Jan. 1, 2027…