Will I be able to keep my doctors on Medicare?

If you choose Original Medicare, there is no doctor network. You can see any doctor or hospital in the country that accepts Medicare. If you choose Medicare Advantage, your doctors depend on that plan’s network, and that network can change every year.

Revised: 8/17/26
Jason Baar
Fee-Only Medicare Advisor
NPN #2033715

The short answer

The doctor question is mostly a Medicare Advantage question.

Original Medicare means Part A and Part B. You can use it with or without a Medigap policy, which is a private supplement that helps pay some of Original Medicare's out-of-pocket costs. Original Medicare has no provider network. If a doctor or hospital accepts Medicare, you can go there.

Medicare Advantage is different. Medicare Advantage plans are private plans that replace how you receive Part A and Part B benefits. These plans use networks. Your doctor has to be contracted with the exact plan you choose, not just the insurance company name on the card.

That difference matters more than most people realize.

Original Medicare gives you the broadest access

Most doctors still take Medicare. About 89% of non-pediatric office-based physicians accept new Medicare patients, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research nonprofit. That is close to the 91% who accept new private-insurance patients.

A small group does not take Medicare at all. About 1% of physicians have formally opted out of Medicare. If a doctor has opted out, they can see Medicare patients only under a private-pay contract. Medicare pays nothing, and Medigap pays nothing.

The clean way to settle it is simple: ask the doctor's billing office, "Do you accept Original Medicare?" If the answer is yes, Original Medicare does not require a network check beyond that.

Medicare Advantage networks can change every year

With Medicare Advantage, being in network last year does not guarantee being in network next year.

Medicare Advantage networks are annual contracts. Doctors, medical groups, and hospital systems renegotiate them every fall. A change might affect one specialist. It might affect a whole hospital system.

That is why the plan name matters. So does the plan ID, often called the H-number. A doctor may take one plan from a company but not another plan from the same company.

KFF found in an October 2025 analysis that Medicare Advantage enrollees, on average, have in-network access to about 48% of the physicians available to Original Medicare beneficiaries in their area. The narrowest fifth of plans reached about one-third of local physicians. The broadest fifth reached about two-thirds.

The carrier name does not tell you enough. The specific plan does.

Do not rely only on the provider directory

Plan provider directories can be wrong. A doctor may be listed even after leaving the network. A location may be wrong. A specialist may be listed under one contract while the hospital uses another.

The billing office is the better source.

Once a year, write down every doctor you would hate to lose. Include specialists, not just your primary care doctor. Then call each doctor's billing office with the exact Medicare Advantage plan name and plan ID/H-number. Ask whether they are contracted with that exact plan for the coming year.

If you see specialists through a hospital system, call the health system's billing line too. The doctor and the hospital can be on different contracts.

Write down the date, the person's name, and what they told you. That note can help if a claim is denied later.

Most calls take about five minutes per doctor.

Read the fall letter that looks like junk mail

If you are already on a Medicare Advantage or Part D drug plan, your plan sends an Annual Notice of Change, often called the ANOC, by September 30.

The ANOC lists what changes for the coming year. That can include costs, drug coverage, benefits, and sometimes network information.

For people on Medicare Advantage, the ANOC is often the most important piece of fall mail. It is also easy to overlook.

Fall enrollment runs October 15 through December 7. That is the window most carriers advertise. It is when many people compare plans for the next year.

There is a January escape hatch, with limits

There is also a lesser-known window called the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, or MA-OEP. It runs January 1 through March 31 every year.

This window is only for people who are already on a Medicare Advantage plan on January 1. During MA-OEP, you get one election. You can switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan, or you can drop Medicare Advantage and return to Original Medicare. If you return to Original Medicare, you may also add a standalone Part D drug plan.

This window cannot move you from Original Medicare into Medicare Advantage.

One more point matters: leaving Medicare Advantage during this window does not automatically guarantee you can get a Medigap policy. That depends on whether you have a protected window, such as the 12-month trial right, a guaranteed-issue event, or state rules.

Coverage usually starts the first day of the month after you file the change.

More plain-English help is in the Free Medicare Guides library.