Forest Hills: D-SNPs, IB-Dual, and the “default enrollment” letter

Forest Hills has a large population of older adults living in co-ops and rental buildings from Austin Street up to the Grand Central Parkway, plus long-time homeowners in the Gardens and Cord Meyer sections. A meaningful share have Medicaid alongside Medicare, and every month some of them get a letter from their Medicaid managed care plan saying they will be enrolled in that plan’s Medicare D-SNP unless they opt out. This page is written for them.

It is also for people in Forest Hills who already have both programs and have heard the words D-SNP, IB-Dual, or MAP without ever getting a clear explanation. You will not find a plan recommendation here. You will find what the terms mean, what the letter is asking, and the phone numbers for free counselors who can look at your actual situation.

Forest Hills is in Queens County. Medicaid for Forest Hills residents is administered by the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA), the same as everywhere else in the city. ZIP 11375 covers most of the neighborhood (approximate; verify with USPS). The 71st Avenue–Continental subway station (E, F, M, R) and the Long Island Rail Road station make it easy to reach counseling sites elsewhere in Queens or in Manhattan.

The integrated dual plans available to New York City residents on the state Department of Health’s 2026 IB-Dual chart all include Queens County, so the plan on a Forest Hills default enrollment letter will cover your address. The practical question is the Medicare network: Forest Hills is dense with private practices on Austin Street, Queens Boulevard, and Yellowstone Boulevard, and each of those doctors either is or is not in a given D-SNP.

Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, on 66th Road just off Queens Boulevard, is the neighborhood’s hospital. If you or a family member use it, or use the Northwell practices attached to it, put that name at the top of your list of things to verify in a plan’s provider directory.

Forest Hills residents are more likely than most Queens residents to have a private specialist in Manhattan, whether a cardiologist on the Upper East Side or a rheumatologist near NYU. A D-SNP’s Medicare network is a specific list, and a Manhattan practice that is in your current Medicaid plan’s network is not automatically in the D-SNP. Read the letter for the effective date, then spend one phone call confirming your key doctors before that date.

If you live in one of the Forest Hills co-ops that has an on-site social worker or a naturally occurring retirement community program, they can help you organize your questions, but they cannot opt you out or enroll you. Only you, your plan, New York Medicaid Choice, and Medicare can do that.