Ending your membership
Ending your membership in our plan may be voluntary (your choice) or involuntary (not your choice). You may choose to leave the plan at any time if you’re eligible to do so. In some situations, we’re required to end your membership, such as if you permanently move outside of our service area.
In general, there are only certain times of the year during which you may voluntarily end your membership in our plan. There may be other limited times during which you may make changes. For more information about these times and the options available to you, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or visit www.medicare.gov to learn more.
Until your membership ends, you must get your Medicare services through our plan or you will have to pay for them yourself. If you leave our plan, it may take some time for your membership to end and your new way of getting Medicare to take effect. While you are waiting for your membership to end, you are still a member and must continue to get your care as usual through our plan. If you must get services from plan providers and doctors or other medical providers who are not plan providers before your membership in our plan ends, neither we nor the Medicare program will pay for these services with just a few exceptions. The exceptions are urgently needed care, care for a medical emergency, out-of-area renal (kidney) dialysis services, and care that has been approved by us. There is another possible exception if you happen to be hospitalized on the day your membership ends. If this happens to you, call Customer Service to find out if your hospital care will be covered by our plan.
If you have any questions about leaving our plan, please call our Customer Service. We cannot ask you to leave the plan because of your health. We cannot ask you to leave your health plan for any health-related reasons. If you ever feel that you are being encouraged or asked to leave our plan because of your health, you should call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), which is the national Medicare help line. TTY users should call 1-877-486-2048. You may call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If any of the following situations occur, we will end your membership in our plan.
- If you don’t pay our plan premiums for 3 calendar months. We must notify you in writing that you have 3 calendar months to pay our plan premium before we end your membership.
- If you move out of the service area or are away from the service area for more than six months in a row. If you plan to move or take a long trip, please call Customer Service to find out if the place you are moving to or travelling to is in our plan’s service area. If you move permanently out of our geographic service area, or if you are away from our service area for more than six months in a row, you cannot remain a member of our plan. In these situations, if you do not leave on your own we must end your membership (disenroll you).
- If you do not stay continually enrolled in Medicare A and B. If you give us information on your enrollment form that you know is false or deliberately misleading, and it affects whether or not you can enroll in our plan.
- If you behave in a way that is disruptive, to the extent that your continued enrollment seriously impairs our ability to arrange or provide medical care for you or for others who are members of our plan. We cannot make you leave our plan for this reason unless we get permission from Medicare first.
- If you let someone else use your plan membership card to get medical care. If you are disenrolled for this reason, CMS may refer your case to the Inspector General for additional investigations.
You have the right to make a complaint if we end your membership in our plan. If we end your membership in our plan we will tell you our reasons in writing and explain how you may file a complaint against us if you want to.