Medicare Advantage Election Windows: Then and Now

Medicare Advantage’s current fall election window runs October 15 through December 7, per 42 CFR § 422.62 — the same start-and-end dates the Medicare & You 2026 handbook currently lists. A separate, once-only window from January 1 through March 31 lets someone already in a Medicare Advantage plan switch plans or drop back to Original Medicare. Before 2011, the fall window was different: the same regulation states that for 2002 through 2010, except 2006, it ran November 15 through December 31.

This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.

Key points

• The regulation itself marks 2011 as the dividing line between two different fall election calendars, per 42 CFR § 422.62.
• For 2002–2010, except 2006, the annual coordinated election period ran November 15 through December 31, per 42 CFR § 422.62.
• Beginning in 2011, that period moved to October 15 through December 7, per 42 CFR § 422.62 — the same start-and-end dates the Medicare & You 2026 handbook currently lists.
• A separate, once-only election in the first three months of the year lets a Medicare Advantage enrollee switch MA plans or disenroll to Original Medicare, per 42 CFR § 422.62.
• The Medicare & You 2026 handbook labels this first-quarter window the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, running January 1 through March 31.

Current fall window

The regulation states the fall window now in effect: “Beginning in 2011, the annual coordinated election period for the following calendar year is October 15 through December 7” — 42 CFR § 422.62. The Medicare & You 2026 handbook lists the same dates in its own listing: “October 15 to December 7.”

A reader who wants to confirm which fall dates currently apply can check either source directly — the regulation’s own text or the current-year handbook — since both list the same October 15 through December 7 range for the fall election period.

Earlier fall window

Before the current window took effect, the regulation’s text sets out an earlier calendar: “For 2002 through 2010, except for 2006, the annual coordinated election period for the following calendar year is November 15 through December 31” — 42 CFR § 422.62.

The regulation describes this earlier window as applying for 2002 through 2010, except 2006, and separately states the October 15 through December 7 period beginning in 2011.

First-quarter switch window

Apart from the fall calendar, the regulation describes a distinct window available only to someone already enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, who “may make an election once during the first 3 months of the year to enroll in another MA plan or disenroll to obtain Original Medicare” — 42 CFR § 422.62.

The Medicare & You 2026 handbook names this same window the “Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (January 1 – March 31).” Unlike the fall election period, this window allows only one election and is available only to someone already enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan.

What these dates don’t cover

These are calendar windows only, drawn from the regulation’s own text and the current handbook. This article does not say which Medicare Advantage plan is available in any particular county, what any plan costs, or whether a Special Enrollment Period might let someone make a change outside these general windows. Those questions depend on separate plan-specific and circumstance-specific rules not addressed here.

Source links

• eCFR — 42 CFR § 422.62
• Medicare & You 2026 Handbook (CMS Publication 10050)