AlightRHS issues.  (Whether or not receiving benefits subsidized by HPInc or HPE.)

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Based on reports from HP Alumni Association members who have completed enrollment. Join forums: https://www.hpalumni.org  Not officially endorsed or supported. Question? Email us: info@hpalumni.org  (Updated Dec 16, 2025)

Related page: AlightRHS phone appointment -- before and during. What to expect. How to escalate. AlightRHS Appointment

Deadline extended if losing your health plan (because HPInc or HPE dropped your group plan -- or because your current insurer in no longer offering plans in your county) you have another week or two after the Dec 7 national policy-change deadline to buy a plan for 2026. Buy your new policy well before Dec 31 to avoid having a gap in coverage due to delays or errors. If you join a new plan after Dec 31, coverage in the new plan won't start until the month after you join. (As stated in the notice from your current insurer.)

Note: If your coverage is not subsidized, Alight Retiree Health Solutions is just one of the many ways to select and buy health policies. Some can be bought online. https://www.hpalumni.org/enroll-ways-to-buy

You may wish to buy your Advantage or Medigap plan via another path and use your HPInc RRA subsidy to buy other plans from AlightRHS -- such as Medicare Part D drug -- or non-Medicare drug, dental and/or vision plans. (The HPInc RRA does not cover hearing plans.)

Correction: RRA subsidy without purchasing from AlightRHS. https://www.hpalumni.org/enroll-rra-workaround

We strongly recommend that you explore your options on the AlightRHS website before your phone appointment -- which you can do without disturbing your current plan settings.

Log in to shop for plans before or during an AlightRHS agent appointment. Check status of plans bought from AlightRHS. https://www.hpalumni.org/enroll-alightrhs-account

AlightRHS issues.

HPAA members have reported several issues with the Alight Retiree Health Solutions insurance sales agency:

- Bug when filtering on doctors.
- Incorrect info about doctors on AlightRHS website.
- Incorrectly forced to do medical underwriting to apply for a Medigap policy.
- Not all policies are available from AlightRHS. How to get AARP/UHC. Tufts.
- Costs shown are approximate and often too low.

Bug when filtering on doctors. When you are looking at Advantage plans, you can filter based on the doctors that you entered earlier in the process. However, if you check more than one Doctor box in the filter dropdown, instead of displaying only plans that are accepted by all of your doctors, the program lists *any* plan that is accepted by *any* of the doctors.

This bug was reported to the HPAA's management contact at Alight. "We are overly cautious when making updates to our system during the enrollment period. In the meantime, retirees may want to review doctors / networks individually on the site to ensure they are returning the true number of doctors that would be expected. I know this is not convenient. I do apologize." --HPAA's AlightRHS management contact, 10/20/25.

Incorrect info about doctors on AlightRHS website. 

The AlightRHS website uses the same "plan recommendation tool" that the AlightRHS agents use. Some of the questions asked, such as location and age, are required to select and price plans. Other questions are optional. The system uses "...information you provide about your doctors and prescription drugs to give each plan a score that's tailored to you."

It is unrealistic to rely on any online database -- whether from a health system, or from an insurer, or from an insurance sales agency (including AlightRHS) -- or even the official Medicare plan directory -- for plan coverage information on doctors and other providers. That is fragile, constantly-changing, second-hand information -- and may not be valid for the coming year.

Check directly with the doctors' offices to determine if your current doctors and other providers will be accepting the Medicare plan that you are considering for next year. Ask for the "billing specialist" or the "billing office." Some only accept existing patients. (Details: https://www.hpalumni.org/enroll-providers )

Kaiser. The AlightRHS system falsely indicates that every Kaiser doctor is closed to existing patients. The workaround is to convince the AlightRHS agent to not enter their current doctors into the AlightRHS system. You many need to escalate to a supervisor at AlightRHS.

Don't let agent enter doctors (or enter them yourself) -- just act like you will accept any doctors in the plan.

Incorrectly forced to do medical underwriting to apply for a Medigap policy.

If an employer group health plan (including retiree or COBRA coverage) is ending, you have a "guaranteed issue" right -- i.e. without "medical underwriting" -- in every state. (This is confusing -- laws in certain states require guaranteed issue in additional situations.)

"If you have a guaranteed issue right, an insurer: Must sell you a Medigap policy. Must cover all your pre-existing health conditions. Can't charge you more for a Medigap policy because of past or present health problems." --Medicare

This may matter to you. Depending on your financial and health situation, and your personal tolerance for risk, you may want take advantage of this one-time opportunity to move from your current HPInc or HPE Advantage-level coverage to a more flexible Medigap plan -- without the normally-required evaluation of your current health. (Summary of the Advantage vs Medigap decision: https://www.hpalumni.org/enroll-advantage-medigap )

If an insurance sales agent (or an online policy application) insists on you answering detailed health questions -- beyond "Are you disabled?" and "Do you use tobacco?" -- you are undergoing medical underwriting.

Either the wrong box was checked somewhere in the enrollment process -- or the AlightRHS system has a problem.

To see the official Medicare rules, go to: https://www.medicare.gov/health-drug-plans/medigap/ready-to-buy  Then click the "What are guaranteed issue rights?" link to see the pop-up. Our annotated screen shot: https://www.hpalumni.org/Medicare-GuaranteedIssue.png

You may need to provide a "loss-of-coverage" or "disenrollment" letter from your previous health plan. See https://www.hpalumni.org/enroll-loss-coverage-letter

One member who had been turned down for a Mutual of Omaha Medigap policy from AlightRHS, applied for a Medigap policy on the MoO site. The online application form asked the correct questions -- and was willing to sell him a policy without medical underwriting. (Screenshot: https://www.hpalumni.org/MoO-GuaranteedIssue.png )

Not all policies are available from AlightRHS -- as with any agency.

An insurance sales agency, such as AlightRHS, employs state-licensed agents to help you select from the plans they carry. The agency receives a substantial commission for the initial sale -- and is paid thereafter for servicing your account.

Many insurers prefer to sell direct -- which will limit your choices, but expedite your application. (Medigap plans can be hard to purchase direct. They are less profitable.)

No insurance sales agency -- including AlightRHS -- offers every every plan available in your area.

To see all plans available to you from any source, use the official Medicare Plan Finder: https://www.medicare.gov/plan-compare 

Enter your ZIP code. Select Advantage, Medigap, or Drug. Click "Find Plans." 

- For Advantage and Drug plans, the site lists all plans offered in your county -- with plan details and Medicare's official "Star" quality and performance rating.

- For Medigap, select the A through N plan letter you are interested in. Click "View Policies" to display all insurers who offer that plan letter in your state.

Notes: Costs displayed are approximate. Some are small local or regional plans. The plan names indicate that some are for veterans or other specific groups.

AARP/UHC plans. Many are not specifically listed on the AlightRHS plan selector, but are available by asking your AlightRHS agent -- as indicated in list of plans available to you. "The UHC AARP plans have very stringent rules for multi-state brokers like ourselves that are effectively impossible to administer, when it comes to displaying the plans with quoted rates on our website. As a result we are not able to display the rates." --HPAA's AlightRHS management contact 10/10/25.

Alight agents may not understand this -- or may not know how to sell you an AARP/UHC plan.

UnitedHealthcare is the largest Medicare insurer. UHC pays royalties to AARP for use of the brandname. Although an annual AARP membership is required (bought online with a credit card) AARP plans are not group plans.

Members report that if your existing group policy is at UHC -- and you are purchasing an individual open-market policy from UHC -- you do not need to forward the letter from UHC about your disenrollment from the UHC group plan. Apparently UHC's system is smart enough to deal with that.

Tufts, but not Harvard Pilgrim. Both are from the same health system -- but only Tufts is available through Alight, per the HPInc Enrollment Guide.

Costs quoted are approximate and often too low.  

Every Plan Recommendation page says in tiny gray type at the bottom of the page: "This is an estimation based on user provided data and may vary if more information is provided to the Benefit Advisor... This is not a guarantee of actual costs, but just an approximation to assist you in shopping."

Based on entering your details, the AlightRHS agent gets the actual price from the insurer.

One member was told that the site assumes a "household discount."

Footnote in gray mouse type: "costs... just an approximation to assist you in shopping." 

To compensate for local cost variations, Advantage policy availability and prices vary by county.

Insurers may elect to drop coverage in some counties and use loss-leader pricing to gain long-term market share in other areas.

For a specific plan under the same terms, you pay the same price regardless of who you bought it from.

Once an application is approved by an insurer, a sales agency is paid an initial commission -- and continuing commissions every year for servicing your account. Advantage: $700-$860 for initial sale; $350-$430 for each year thereafter. Medigap: typically $260-$440 (22%) initial year and each year for five more years. Part D: $114, then $57/year.

Current Medicare policy cancelled early -- or recent new enrollment canceled.

Medicare maintains a central "Enrollment DataBase" to ensure that someone cannot be enrolled in multiple plans for the same time period. Insurers automatically report new enrollment approvals to Medicare, which continuously checks for coverage overlap. If a new policy that covers the same time period is found, Medicare causes the previous policy to be canceled.

If a problem, contact the insurance sales agency that sold you the misdated plan. Or contact Medicare.

Be sure to verify the starting date entered by the agent (or yourself) when you are applying for a new policy. One member discovered that their current plan had been cancelled when picking up a prescription.

Problem with AlightRHS? -- such as the assigned agent not getting back to you or having difficulties using the system -- you can ask to switch agents. (And the HPAA has an escalation path to AlightRHS management -- which will get results: https://www.hpalumni.org/escalate-ARHS )

Despite all of this, most HPAA members report that the AlightRHS process works well once set up.

HPInc first offered subsidized open-market plans in 2017. Now used by thousands of HPInc retirees.

If you have a problem with a plan. As with any insurance sales agency... start with the agency that sold you the plan. For Alight Retiree Health Solutions, if the first-level person can't resolve your issue, they can escalate it to a special group within Alight. The sales agency gets a monthly commission for servicing your account. (HPInc or HPE is out of the picture, except for reimbursing you from your RRA.)

Next step: AlightRHS phone appointment -- before and during. What to expect. AlightRHS Appointment (Membership not required.)

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