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Choosing crosswalk levels: same plan ID, county splits, and ZIP-level cautions
Summary
Guidance describes crosswalk options — same plan ID, plan ID level, county-level crosswalks and ZIP-level crosswalks — and cautions that CMS discourages ZIP-level crosswalks unless necessary.
The crosswalk template allows issuers to select the level of granularity for mapping PY2026 plans to PY2027 plans: crosswalking to the same plan ID, crosswalking at the plan ID level, crosswalking at plan ID plus county coverage, or crosswalking at the ZIP code level for specific counties. "Crosswalking at the plan ID and county coverage level," the Presenter explains, "Select this option if your service area changed for the upcoming year and you need to crosswalk your plan year 2026 plan to 2 or more plan year 2027 plan IDs or discontinue the plan in some counties."
The guidance warns that if a PY2026 plan covered an entire state, issuers will need to crosswalk the plan for every county in the state, and that "CMS discourages issuers from crosswalking at the zip code level unless absolutely necessary." Issuers should choose the level that accurately reflects service-area changes while minimizing excessive ZIP-level fragmentation.
