Medicare for Snowbirds: The 6-Month Rule and What to Check Before You Head to Florida

Six months. That is how long a Medicare Advantage member can be away from the plan's service area before federal rules require the plan to disenroll them, unless the plan runs a visitor/traveler program. A stand-alone Part D drug plan gets 12 months. Original Medicare has no clock at all, as long as you stay in the U.S.

Those limits sit in 42 CFR 422.74 and 423.44. Snowbird season is starting, and this year it lands on top of Medicare Open Enrollment, October 15 to December 7, 2026, for 2027 coverage. A lot of people pick next year's coverage in the same weeks they're closing up the house for the drive down I-75 or I-95. That's a bad time to learn your plan's network stops at the county line.

Source: CMS, Medicare Monthly Enrollment, Florida, June 2026; KFF, Medicare Advantage in 2026 (beneficiaries with Parts A and B); University of Florida, Dec. 2006.

Who these rules actually hit

KFF puts 60.8% of Florida beneficiaries with Parts A and B in Medicare Advantage as of March 2026, against 55% nationally. Every one of those enrollments is tied to a service area: one or more counties for a local plan, a CMS-approved region for a regional plan (42 CFR 422.2).

Medicare Advantage & other plans3,046,820Original Medicare2,287,617

Source: CMS, Medicare Monthly Enrollment, Florida, June 2026

Show the numbers

Coverage	People
Medicare Advantage & other plans	3,046,820
Original Medicare	2,287,617

The snowbird count is the weak spot. The most solid estimate is old: University of Florida researchers studying the state's older population estimated about 818,000 snowbirds spent at least a month in Florida at the peak of the 2005 winter, based on surveys from 2000 to 2003, and more than 72% of them stayed longer than three months. An earlier UF release put Florida's temporary residents, not just retirees, at about 920,000 in peak winter (nearly 64% of those surveyed were 55 or older), with an average stay of five months, most often from New York, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Read those as scale, not as today's count.

It runs the other way too. The same study found that in July about 313,000 older Floridians were away from home for at least 30 consecutive days. Of the older Floridians who spent 30 or more days away, 92% left the state, most often for a state where they had lived before. If your permanent home is in Sarasota and you summer up north, everything below applies to you in reverse.

Three kinds of coverage, three different clocks

There are two questions here: how long you can be away, and what your coverage pays for while you're gone. The answers depend on what you have.

Source: 42 CFR 422.74 and 423.44; CMS enrollment and disenrollment guidance (CY 2027); 42 CFR 422.113; 42 CFR 423.124; Medicare & You 2027; CMS, Choosing a Medigap Policy. Rules only; plans differ, so read your own Evidence of Coverage.

Medicare Advantage, no visitor/traveler program6 monthsMedicare Advantage with a visitor/traveler program12 monthsStand-alone Part D drug plan12 months

Source: 42 CFR 422.74 and 423.44; CMS enrollment and disenrollment guidance (CY 2027)

Show the numbers

Coverage	Maximum time away
Medicare Advantage, no visitor/traveler program	6 months
Medicare Advantage with a visitor/traveler program	12 months
Stand-alone Part D drug plan	12 months

Original Medicare and Medigap: no clock

With Original Medicare you can use any doctor or hospital that takes Medicare anywhere in the U.S., which for Medicare includes Puerto Rico and the other territories. In most cases you don't need a referral to see a specialist.

Almost every doctor takes it. KFF found 1.2% of non-pediatric physicians had formally opted out of Medicare as of November 2024; in Florida it was 734 of 60,267. The exceptions are worth one question at the front desk of any new practice in Florida: do you accept Medicare assignment?

• Non-participating doctors who don't take assignment can charge up to 15% above the Medicare-approved amount. Standardized Medigap Plans F and G pay those excess charges.
• Opted-out doctors have you sign a private contract, and you pay the whole bill. Neither of you can bill Medicare Part B, and the opt-out applies to Medicare Advantage members too.

Medigap travels with Original Medicare. Medicare pays first, the policy pays its share, and in general you can keep it wherever you live as long as you have Original Medicare. The one catch is Medicare SELECT, a Medigap policy that uses a hospital network (sometimes doctors too). Medicare still pays its share anywhere, but for non-emergency care outside the network you'll pay some or all of what the policy doesn't cover. If you winter far from your SELECT network, don't schedule elective care in Florida without checking. More on our Medicare Supplement (Medigap) in Florida page.

Cruises and trips abroad

Florida makes it easy to leave the country for a week, from a cruise out of Port Everglades to a flight to Cancún. Original Medicare usually doesn't pay for care outside the U.S. Part B may cover medically necessary care on a cruise ship when the doctor is legally allowed to treat you on board and the ship is in a U.S. port or no more than 6 hours from one. Medicare drug plans don't cover prescriptions bought abroad.

Medigap Plans C, D, F, G, M and N include a foreign travel emergency benefit: 80% of billed charges after a $250 yearly deductible, up to $50,000 over your lifetime, for emergency care that begins in the first 60 days of a trip. Plans A, B, K and L don't, and C and F are only open to people eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020. Medicare Advantage plans generally don't cover care abroad, though some may offer an extra benefit for emergencies.

Medicare Advantage: the network and the 6-month clock

The network bites first. An HMO generally covers care only in its network, except emergency care, out-of-area urgent care and temporary out-of-area dialysis. A PPO covers out-of-network care at a higher cost if the provider agrees to treat you. Under 42 CFR 422.113, every plan must pay for emergency and urgently needed care in or out of network, without prior authorization. But "urgently needed" means care for an unforeseen illness or injury while you're temporarily out of the area. A checkup you book for January isn't unforeseen. With an HMO from Ohio, the ER visit in Fort Myers is covered; the cardiology follow-up you schedule there may not be.

Then the clock. If you haven't moved but you've been out of the service area for more than six consecutive months, the plan must disenroll you, unless it has a visitor/traveler program (below). It has to send a notice in the first 10 days of the sixth month, and the disenrollment takes effect on the first day of the month after six months have passed. You land in Original Medicare unless you choose another plan.

If that plan included your drug coverage, losing it ends your drug coverage too. Use the Special Enrollment Period to join a drug plan, or another Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage, so you don't go without. A stretch of 63 or more days in a row without Medicare drug coverage or other creditable drug coverage can mean a Part D late enrollment penalty added to your premium for as long as you have Part D.

The plan doesn't rely on your word for the dates. If plan mail comes back from the Postal Service as undeliverable with no forwarding address, the regulation treats you as temporarily absent, and CMS encourages plans to check provider-claim addresses and other sources. Set up mail forwarding.

Visitor/traveler programs

A plan may offer a visitor/traveler program that keeps you enrolled while you're elsewhere in the U.S. for more than six but less than 12 consecutive months. If it does, it must offer the option to every member away for an extended period and charge the same cost sharing as at home, but it can limit the program to certain areas and providers. You're disenrolled on the first day of the 13th month, or sooner if the program is shorter. Nothing requires a plan to have one, so ask before you leave and get the answer in writing: Do you have one? Does it cover the county I'll be in? Which providers? How many months?

Here's how the dates line up if you leave and don't go back.

Source: 42 CFR 422.74 and 423.44; CMS enrollment and disenrollment guidance (CY 2027). Dates worked out from the rules; your plan dates the absence from when it determines you left.

A typical season fits inside this. Leave November 1, come home by the end of April, and you've been gone less than six months; UF's average stay was five. That's not much room. A new grandchild, a late spring or a health problem that keeps you from traveling can push you past it.

Part D: a 12-month clock and a pharmacy question

A stand-alone drug plan covers one or more PDP regions; there were 34 in 2026, not counting the territories. Stay away more than 12 consecutive months and the plan must disenroll you on the first day of the 13th month. A five-month season is nowhere near it. If your drug coverage comes through a Medicare Advantage plan, the Medicare Advantage rules apply instead. In Florida, 1,556,523 people had a stand-alone drug plan in June 2026 and 2,861,668 had drug coverage through Medicare Advantage (CMS).

The real issue is the pharmacy. Under 42 CFR 423.124, plans must cover out-of-network pharmacies when you can't reasonably use a network one and don't do it routinely. CMS's example is a traveler who runs out of a drug, loses it or gets sick and can't reach a network pharmacy. Plans can set limits, though, and CMS names one: requiring mail order for maintenance drugs on extended trips. Out of network you'll probably pay full price up front and ask for a partial refund later.

Before you leave, ask whether pharmacies near your Florida address are in the network, and if the plan offers mail order (some send up to a 3-month supply), ask whether it can ship to your winter address. More in our Part D in Florida overview.

Where do you live? Medicare wants one answer

CMS defines permanent residence as the enrollee's primary residence, not necessarily the individual's mailing address. You can only join a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan where you permanently live, and a temporary move doesn't count. Spending January through March in Naples doesn't make you eligible for a Collier County plan.

If a plan questions your residence, it can ask for voter registration, a driver's license, tax records or utility bills. Claim permanent residence in two states and the plan looks to state law to decide. A P.O. box alone won't establish your residence; the plan will ask where you physically live. A separate mailing address only changes where the mail goes.

To change your address with Medicare, Medicare.gov says to contact Social Security, even if you don't get Social Security benefits. Social Security's update page says you can only update your mailing address and phone number if you're already getting benefits, so if you aren't, call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) and ask. If you do get benefits, a my Social Security account works too. Railroad Retirement Board beneficiaries call the RRB at 1-877-772-5772.

My read: your Medicare address, driver's license, voter registration and tax return should point to the same state. If they don't, fix that before you pick a plan, not after a plan asks.

If you're making Florida permanent

A permanent move out of your plan's area opens a Special Enrollment Period that runs from the move through two full months after it, or from the month before the move if you tell your plan in advance. CMS's own example: a Florida member who tells the plan in May about a June 18 move to Arizona gets May 1 to August 31.

If you leave Medicare Advantage because of the move and go back to Original Medicare, federal law also gives you a guaranteed issue right to Medigap Plan A, B, C, D, F or G sold in your state (C and F only if you were eligible for Medicare before 2020). The insurer can't turn you down or charge more for health problems. Apply between 60 days before and 63 days after your Medicare Advantage coverage ends. See Medicare in Florida, or Medicare in Washington if your current home is in Washington.

Florida's Medigap rules

Florida adds its own rules, and one detail matters to snowbirds: its open enrollment protections are written for people who reside in this state. If your permanent home is in Michigan, your home state's rules and the federal ones apply to you.

Source: Fla. Stat. 627.6741; F.A.C. 69O-156.030; F.A.C. 69O-156.0075; CMS, Choosing a Medigap Policy (March 2026).

The cancellation rule is the useful one for a Floridian who summers elsewhere: months out of state aren't on the short list of reasons a Florida Medigap policy can be canceled.

Before you leave, while you're away, before you come back

Source: 42 CFR 422.74 and 423.44; CMS enrollment and disenrollment guidance (CY 2027); Medicare & You 2027; Medicare.gov, Joining a plan; CMS Prescription Drug Benefit Manual, ch. 5; KFF.

Where to get unbiased help

Every state has a State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP). Florida's is SHINE, Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders, a program of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs and local Area Agencies on Aging. Trained volunteers give one-on-one counseling on Medicare, Medicaid and health insurance, and SHINE describes the help as unbiased and confidential, with no charge.

If your permanent home is elsewhere, call that state's SHIP too; they know your home-area options and your state's Medigap rules. Massachusetts snowbirds, note the name clash: your SHIP is also called SHINE, with a different number.

Source: Medicare & You 2027, SHIP directory. Other states: shiphelp.org.

Medicare is at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227, TTY 1-877-486-2048). When you compare 2027 options on Medicare.gov, use your permanent address, not your winter one.

Snowbird Medicare questions

How long can I be out of my Medicare Advantage plan's service area?

If you haven't moved but you've been out of the service area for more than six consecutive months, the plan must disenroll you, unless it offers a visitor/traveler program. Those programs are optional and can keep you enrolled for up to 12 consecutive months while you're in the U.S.

Can I join a Medicare Advantage plan in Florida if I only spend the winter there?

No. You have to permanently live in a plan's service area to join it, and CMS defines permanent residence as your primary residence, not necessarily your mailing address. A temporary stay in Florida doesn't count.

Does Original Medicare work in Florida if I live in another state?

Yes. With Original Medicare you can use any doctor or hospital that takes Medicare anywhere in the U.S., and a Medigap policy pays its share after Medicare does. The exception is a Medicare SELECT policy, which may not cover non-emergency care outside its network.

What happens to my Part D plan if I spend the winter in Florida?

A stand-alone drug plan must disenroll you only after more than 12 consecutive months away. While you travel, it must cover out-of-network pharmacies when you can't reasonably use a network one, but it can set limits, such as requiring mail order for extended trips.

Your plan's Evidence of Coverage, your policy wording and federal and state law control what's covered. Confirm your own situation with a licensed agent, SHINE or your home state's SHIP, or the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, and talk to an attorney for legal questions about where you're a resident.

Sources

1. eCFR: 42 CFR 422.74, disenrollment by the MA organization (current as of Oct 8, 2026)
2. eCFR: 42 CFR 422.2, definitions (service area)
3. eCFR: 42 CFR 422.62, election of coverage and special election periods
4. eCFR: 42 CFR 422.113, emergency and urgently needed services
5. eCFR: 42 CFR 423.44, involuntary disenrollment from Part D
6. eCFR: 42 CFR 423.112, PDP service areas
7. eCFR: 42 CFR 423.124, out-of-network pharmacy access
8. CMS: Medicare Advantage and Part D Enrollment and Disenrollment Guidance, CY 2027 (Aug 25, 2026)
9. CMS: Prescription Drug Benefit Manual, Chapter 5
10. CMS: Medicare & You 2027 handbook
11. CMS: Choosing a Medigap Policy (Product No. 02110, March 2026)
12. CMS: Medicare Coverage Outside the United States (Product No. 11037, April 2026)
13. Medicare.gov: Travel outside the U.S.
14. Medicare.gov: Special Enrollment Periods
15. Medicare.gov: Joining a plan
16. Medicare.gov: Change your address
17. Medicare.gov: Pharmacies and Medicare drug coverage
18. Social Security: Update contact information
19. Florida Statutes 627.6741: Medicare supplement issuance, cancellation, nonrenewal
20. Florida Administrative Code 69O-156.030: Medicare SELECT
21. Florida Administrative Code 69O-156.0075: standardized Medicare supplement benefits
22. CMS: Medicare Monthly Enrollment (Florida, June 2026)
23. KFF: Medicare Advantage in 2026, enrollment update and key trends
24. KFF: How many physicians have opted out of the Medicare program?
25. KFF: A current snapshot of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit
26. University of Florida: Snowbirds and sunbirds cause big shifts in Florida's older population (Dec. 2006)
27. University of Florida: New York leads in snowbirds moving temporarily to Florida (Nov. 2004)
28. Florida SHINE program
29. SHIP locator: shiphelp.org