Blogs
D-SNP 2026: Navigating CMS’s New Enrollment Rules & Industry Preparedness
Contract Year 2026 brings a different operating reality for Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNP). Monthly Special Enrollment Periods (SEPs) introduced in 2025 are now the market’s “new normal,” steering full-benefit duals toward integrated offerings and reshaping how plans compete outside AEP. Meanwhile, the Medicare Advantage Value Based Insurance Design (VBID) model sunsets after 2025, removing a lever many plans used for $0 drug copays and broad supplemental benefits. Layer on top the 2026 final rule’s protections around appeals/prior authorization, codified guardrails for Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI), and automatic renewal for the Prescription Payment Plan, and you get a year defined by operational execution, not just benefit design.
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