The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has stopped new agents and brokers from registering to sell 2027 Marketplace plans unless they already hold an active agreement for 2026, part of a broader crackdown the agency says has already led to terminations for more than 200 agents and brokers since January. The action targets the sign-up side of the federal health insurance exchange, where CMS says unauthorized enrollments have driven billions of dollars in improper subsidy payments. The moratorium and the terminations both land in the weeks before Open Enrollment, when agent and broker activity typically climbs as they help consumers sign up for or switch coverage.
The Temporary Moratorium on 2027 Agent and Broker Registration
CMS’s fact sheet on its anti-fraud actions describes “a temporary moratorium on the registration of agents and brokers for 2027 who do not have an active Exchange Agreement for 2026,” meaning an agent or broker cannot newly register to sell federal Marketplace plans for next year without already being in good standing on this year’s agreement. The fact sheet, published September 22, 2026, ties the freeze to what it calls “a pattern of unauthorized enrollments and suspicious agent and broker activity,” though it does not spell out the specific mechanics of how an agent or broker carries out an unauthorized enrollment or switch, and it does not give a fixed end date for when the moratorium itself will be lifted.
Sorting a legitimate agent from a Marketplace notice: the provider call script and the Open Enrollment calendar in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit give a way to confirm plan details directly and track key enrollment dates without relying on an unsolicited broker call. Use both tools inside The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
More Than 200 Termination Notices Since January
The registration freeze follows enforcement CMS says is already underway. The agency’s fact sheet states that more than 200 agents and brokers have received termination notices since January 2026, and that CMS separately issued 569 notices of intent to terminate Exchange Agreements over the summer, of which 66 have already received termination notices. Read together, the figures describe a pipeline: agents flagged for problems first get a notice of intent to terminate, and a subset of those have since moved to actual termination, on top of the 200-plus terminations CMS counts separately since the start of the year.
Why Newly Registered Agents Draw Extra Scrutiny
CMS’s fact sheet backs up the registration freeze with data comparing agents and brokers who first registered for 2026 against those with longer track records. It found newly registered agents were 2.8 times more likely to have unresolved income verification issues, 2.7 times more likely to submit applications with missing Social Security numbers, and 2.6 times more likely to have unresolved citizenship or immigration status verification issues, along with smaller but still elevated rates of using special enrollment periods not subject to verification and of dual Medicaid/CHIP and Marketplace enrollment. That data is the basis CMS cites for barring new registrations from agents without an existing, active 2026 agreement rather than simply increasing oversight of the entire agent and broker pool equally. For a Marketplace enrollee, those same risk categories, an unresolved income or citizenship verification issue, a missing Social Security number, translate into the kind of errors that can trigger a retroactive loss of premium tax credits or a bill for subsidies CMS later decides were not owed.
The $2.2 Billion in Premium Tax Credits CMS Says It Will Recoup
CMS ties the enforcement push to a dollar figure. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the agency is “shutting down unauthorized Marketplace enrollments and returning approximately $2.2 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies,” a figure the press release attributes to canceling roughly 315,000 unauthorized enrollments that affected more than 760,000 individuals. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said, “Every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar taken from hardworking taxpayers and the Americans these programs are intended to serve.” The $2.2 billion figure refers to advance payments of the premium tax credit, the subsidy that lowers a Marketplace enrollee’s monthly premium, which CMS says were paid out on enrollments it now considers unauthorized.
New Login.gov and ID.me Verification Before Open Enrollment
Alongside the registration freeze and terminations, CMS says it is rolling out identity checks meant to close the gap that let unauthorized enrollments happen in the first place. The agency’s press release describes requiring agents and brokers to re-verify their identity through Login.gov or ID.me, along with an electronic consumer authorization step CMS says will apply “before an agent or broker can take any action on an application or enrollment,” which the fact sheet says will be in place in advance of the next Open Enrollment period. CMS does not give an exact rollout date for either safeguard, positioning the moratorium, the terminations and the new verification requirements as connected pieces of the same effort heading into 2027 sign-ups. Together, the three measures shift more of the verification burden onto the agent or broker at the point of enrollment rather than onto the consumer after the fact, which is the point at which CMS says the $2.2 billion in improper subsidies had already gone out the door.
Confirming Coverage Directly When a Broker’s Standing Is in Question
A registration freeze and more than 200 broker terminations tell a consumer that CMS is policing who can sell Marketplace plans, but they do not tell an individual Medicare enrollee whether a specific plan or provider showing up on their own account is accurate and unchanged.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a provider call script for confirming coverage directly with a plan and a cost calculator spreadsheet for comparing plans on cost, drugs and doctors without going through a broker.
Check plan details directly using the tools in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
