Kennewick: your Medicare Advantage plan is being discontinued. Here is the order I would do things in.

Example: a Kennewick retiree with three prescriptions

Example (a made-up person, not a client): Linda lives off Clearwater Avenue, sees a primary care doctor in town, fills three prescriptions every month, and opened a letter in early October saying her Medicare Advantage plan won't renew for 2027. Here's how the next ten weeks could go for her.

1. This week. She digs out the letter, circles the end date (December 31, 2026) and files it with the envelope it came in. If she later buys a Medigap policy, the insurer can ask to see both.
2. Same week. She writes down her doctor, her pharmacy and every drug with its strength and how often she takes it. Every comparison she makes runs off that sheet of paper.
3. Before Thanksgiving. She runs the list through Medicare Plan Finder, or calls 1-800-MEDICARE and reads it to them, and compares two routes: a different Medicare Advantage plan, or Original Medicare plus a stand-alone drug plan, with or without a Medigap policy.
4. No later than December 31. She makes her pick. It takes effect January 1, 2027, the day after the old plan stops.

The drug plan is the step that is easiest to miss, and that's where a Kennewick household can lose money fastest. So most of this page is about drugs.

Why your prescriptions are the thing to watch

Most Medicare Advantage plans carry Part D inside them. When the plan goes away, its drug coverage goes with it. If you end up in Original Medicare, nothing slides in to replace it. You have to choose a stand-alone Part D plan yourself, and if you don't, the pharmacy counter charges full price starting January 1.

Then the penalty. Medicare tacks a late enrollment penalty onto your drug premium if you go 63 days or more in a row without Part D or other creditable drug coverage. The math is 1% of the national base beneficiary premium for every full month you went without; that base is $41.33 for 2027. It stays for as long as you have Part D. People getting Extra Help are exempt.

Could you technically wait? Someone who signs up in February gets drug coverage starting March 1, which keeps the gap at 59 days. I wouldn't plan around that. Two months of paying cash for brand-name prescriptions can cost far more than a small penalty.

Federal limits for 2027 cap what any Part D plan can ask: no deductible above $700, and once your out-of-pocket spending on covered drugs reaches $2,400, you pay nothing more for covered Part D drugs the rest of the year. Plans still differ on which drugs they list and which Kennewick pharmacies are preferred, so run your own list rather than trusting the averages.

Kennewick next to Benton County

Sources: WA OFM April 1, 2026 population; U.S. Census ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimates (city 65+); OFM 2025 age estimates (county 65+); CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment, July 2026, which is county-level only.

Kennewick holds about four in ten Benton County residents. CMS doesn't count Medicare members by city, but if you assume the city matches the county's 32.3%, about a third of its Medicare population would be in Medicare Advantage and other health plans. That is an assumption, not a count, and CMS publishes no figures on who got non-renewal letters.

The one hospital the state Department of Health and CMS list inside Kennewick is Trios Health on Plaza Way. If that's where you'd go, confirm it's in network for 2027 before you join any Medicare Advantage plan. Original Medicare skips that question, since it has no network.

The rest of the rules, short version

• Because your plan is ending, you get a special enrollment period from December 8, 2026 through February 28, 2027. A choice made after December 31 starts on the first of the next month.
• If you make no choice at all, Medicare moves you to Original Medicare on January 1 with no drug plan attached. The one exception: Extra Help members get placed in a stand-alone Part D plan by CMS unless they already picked one for 2027.
• Moving to Original Medicare gives you a Washington guaranteed issue right to buy certain Medigap policies with no health questions. OIC says send the application on or after November 1; the right ends March 4, 2027.

The Medigap plan letters, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment rules and the full timeline are on our statewide Washington page.

Help you can reach from Kennewick

Southeast Washington Aging and Long Term Care, the Area Agency on Aging for the county, runs its Kennewick office at 3311 W. Clearwater Ave., Suite D100 (509-735-0315). It handles Community Living Connections, the place to ask about in-home help, meals and caregiver support.

Getting to a new doctor: Ben Franklin Transit gives riders 65 and older a Senior Pass that covers fixed routes and CONNECT at no charge. BFT says to contact it for the free Senior ID pass; customer service is at Three Rivers Transit Center, 7109 W. Okanogan Place (509-735-5100). For riders who qualify under the ADA, Dial-A-Ride takes reservations at 509-735-0160.

For neutral insurance counseling, SHIBA's statewide number is 800-562-6900, staffed 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. The county's local SHIBA sponsor, Catholic Charities Serving Central Washington in Richland, was listed by OIC on October 26, 2026 as "Currently not accepting appointments," with callers pointed to 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). That federal line answers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except some federal holidays.

Your plan's notice fixes your actual dates, while federal Medicare rules and Washington law set everything else, so run anything you're unsure about past 1-800-MEDICARE, SHIBA or a licensed agent.

Related pages: Washington statewide guide · Benton County · Richland · West Richland

What Kennewick readers ask

Sources

1. Medicare.gov: Part D costs and late enrollment penalty
2. Washington OIC: Is your Medicare Advantage plan changing or leaving?
3. Washington OIC: Find a local SHIBA office
4. CMS CY2027 MA and Part D Enrollment and Disenrollment Guidance
5. CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment, July 2026
6. U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B09020
7. WA OFM April 1 population estimates
8. CMS Hospital General Information
9. Ben Franklin Transit fares and Senior Pass
10. Ben Franklin Transit Dial-A-Ride
11. Community Living Connections local contacts