Check Your UHC Book for 2027 SARs Now
Find Your UHC Clients Losing Their Plan in 2027
A new Jarvis filter shows every Service Area Reduction client in your book, and here's how to keep your Agent of Record status when they move
If one of your clients opens a letter saying their UnitedHealthcare plan is going away, you want to be the agent who already called them with a plan. Getting to them before the letter does keeps the conversation, and the enrollment, with you.
UnitedHealthcare is discontinuing certain Medicare Advantage plans and reducing the service area of others effective January 1, 2027, as part of its 2027 Service Area Reductions (SARs), also known as plan exits. A new filter in your Jarvis Book of Business shows you in a few minutes whether any of your clients are affected, so check your book before AEP opens on October 15.
What a SAR Means for Your Clients
A Service Area Reduction can be either the removal of a county from a plan or an entire plan closure. Affected members' current plan benefits stay in effect through December 31, 2026, and they need to choose a new plan for 2027.
Members who don't take action by December 31, 2026 will return to Original Medicare effective January 1, 2027. If their plan included drug coverage, they will no longer have drug coverage starting January 1, 2027 unless they enroll in a new plan that includes it.
Affected members can choose a new plan during AEP, October 15 through December 7, 2026, for a January 1, 2027 effective date. They also have a Special Election Period (SEP) from December 8, 2026 through February 28, 2027, but waiting means a gap. An enrollment completed in January 2027 takes effect February 1, and one completed in February takes effect March 1, with the member on Original Medicare in the meantime.
Members will receive written notice of these changes and their options, and may get additional outreach by email, direct mail, or phone. Members who have an Agent of Record will be directed to reach out to their agent, which is one more reason to reach them first. Per CMS guidelines, non-renewals could not be discussed before October 1, so you can contact affected members now.
Find Your SAR Clients in Jarvis
Go to UHC Jarvis and sign in with your One Healthcare ID.
From the Jarvis home page, click Book of Business in the blue menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Filters button just above your member list.
In the Filters panel, open Member Status, check the box for Service Area Reduction, and click Apply Filters.
Review your results. Affected clients will show "Current Plan is a Service Area Reduction for upcoming plan year" in the Member Status column. If nothing comes up, you're all set.
You can work your SAR clients right from this page, or click Download if you'd rather have a spreadsheet.
Keep Your Agent of Record Status
You keep your Agent of Record (AOR) status under UnitedHealthcare's standard AOR retention policy when your client moves from one Qualifying Plan into a new Qualifying Plan, either through a UnitedHealthcare Direct to Consumer (DTC) agent or by self-enrolling through CMS, web, or paper enrollment without the involvement of a non-DTC sales agent. Qualifying Plans include UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug (MAPD), Dual Special Needs Plans (D-SNP), and Chronic Special Needs Plans (C-SNP), except where UnitedHealthcare has identified the new plan as ineligible.
To be retained, you need to be an active selling agent who is appropriately licensed, appointed, and product certified for the new plan, and you need to keep providing prompt service to the member. UnitedHealthcare reserves the right to remove an AOR and stop paying commissions if it receives information that the agent is not servicing the member.
How commissions work. When AOR is retained, you receive commission at the current renewal year rate for the new enrollment, as long as the new plan is commissionable. If the member enrolls in a non-commissionable plan, you remain the AOR but are not paid a commission. To see which plans are commissionable, check your most recent contract amendment or the Medicare Product Portal.
When AOR is not retained. Plan changes into or out of a stand-alone Prescription Drug Plan (PDP), Medicare Supplement Insurance plan, Institutional Special Needs Plan (I-SNP), or Medicare-Medicaid Plan (MMP) do not qualify. If the member enrolls in a DTC "Direct" plan, it is non-commissionable and AOR protection does not apply. If the member changes plans with a different, non-DTC sales agent, that agent becomes the new AOR.
After December 31, 2026
AOR status on a SAR plan ends when the plan terminates on December 31, 2026. Unless you get the client's permission to contact them on or after January 1, 2027, you are not permitted to call the former member starting January 1. The safest path is to have the 2027 conversation and the enrollment done during AEP.
UHC Resources
Questions?
UnitedHealthcare's Producer Help Desk is available by live chat through Jarvis or at 1-888-381-8581 (Español, presione la opción 2). For questions about your UHC book with The Brokerage Inc., email our Medicare team at [email protected].
