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ST. PAUL 鈥� As the end of the open enrollment period for Medicare approaches, Minnesota officials are warning that major health care providers across the state soon won鈥檛 accept certain Medicare Advantage plans, affecting coverage for more than 60,000 people.

Open enrollment is Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, and with one week left until the deadline to sign up for 2025 coverage, Attorney General Keith Ellison and officials from state agencies handling aging and Medicare are trying to spread the word about providers dropping or changing Medicare Advantage plans.

鈥淲e are seeing not only the provider changes, but plan cost changes, formulary changes, meaning the drugs that they鈥檙e taking may or may not be covered in 2025 and may have higher cost sharing,鈥� said Kelli Jo Greiner, who handles Medicare issues for Minnesota鈥檚 . 鈥淲e want to make sure that they鈥檙e selecting the right plan and that they have the coverage that they need.鈥�

The warning comes after numerous Minnesota health care providers said they鈥檒l no longer accept Medicare Advantage plans from Humana in 2025.

Providers like Allina Health and North Memorial Health have argued that reimbursement from the plans is too low, isn鈥檛 timely, and often care that providers see as medically necessary is declined, according to the attorney general鈥檚 office.

Other networks have been able to negotiate continued coverage. Earlier this month, Health Partners and insurer United Health Care managed to reach a multi-year agreement allowing some 30,000 Medicare Advantage subscribers to continue getting in-network care at locations like Regions Hospital in downtown St. Paul and Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater.

However, six Minnesota health care providers aren鈥檛 participating in Humana Medicare Advantage in 2025, according to state officials. They serve regions across the state and include:

• Allina Health, a Minneapolis-based provider operating statewide
• Avera Health, a Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based provider operating in southwestern Minnesota
• Essentia Health, a Duluth-based system serving northern Minnesota and Wisconsin
• M Health Fairview, a Twin Cities-based system providing statewide service (also not participating in Aetna)
• North Memorial, a provider primarily operating in the Twin Cities metro area
• Sanford Health, a Sioux Falls-based provider primarily serving western Minnesota

Mayo Health is not accepting Medicare Advantage plans through Health Partners, but state officials noted this has been the case for a number of years.

Around 1 million Minnesotans 65 or older or with disabilities use federal Medicare plans, and about 600,000 have Medicare Advantage plans. Those are Medicare-approved plans from private insurers that bundle government coverage with other benefits. The advantage is they offer wider coverage, but they鈥檙e also less flexible with which providers a patient can see.

鈥淲e are here to encourage conversations across dinner tables this week,鈥� Ellison said before Thanksgiving. 鈥淲e鈥檝e only got less than two weeks, so we need people to have those dialogs about Medicare Advantage to make sure that they don鈥檛 miss out.鈥�

Minnesota鈥檚 Senior LinkAge Line advises anyone on a Medicare Advantage plan to consider whether it鈥檚 important that they continue seeing their current health care provider and review costs in the Medicare Plan Finder to see if coverage and costs have changed. That tool can be found at .

The plan finder also can be used to review options. When enrolling in a plan, do so directly by calling or through the plan鈥檚 website or online on the Medicare Plan Finder tool.

Anyone with questions about Medicare can call the 24/7 hotline at 1-800-MEDICARE or the Senior LinkAge Line at 800-333-2433.

State officials warn there has been a significant increase in the number of calls, and that wait times may be longer than usual.