Medicare Advantage

Medicare Star Ratings 2026: What the Numbers Really Mean

Sitka, Alaska — Each fall, just before Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period opens on October 15, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) refreshes its Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans. If you live in Sitka and are weighing your options for 2026, those little star icons on Medicare.gov are meant to be a shortcut — a snapshot of how a plan has performed. But they are widely misunderstood. Here is what they actually measure, when they post, and how to use them without being steered.

What the Star Ratings actually are

Star Ratings are a quality measurement system CMS uses to score Medicare Advantage (Part C) and standalone Part D drug plans on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, in half-star increments. Five stars means CMS rated the plan's performance as excellent. One star means poor performance. The ratings are based on the prior year's data, so the stars you see this fall reflect how plans did across dozens of measures over the past year.

Importantly, Star Ratings are not a ranking of plans against each other. They are performance scores against CMS's own benchmarks. Two plans can hold the same star rating and still work very differently for different people.

What CMS looks at

For Medicare Advantage plans that include drug coverage, CMS evaluates around 40 separate measures. For Part D drug plans on their own, it's roughly a dozen. The measures fall into a few broad buckets:

• Staying healthy — whether members get recommended screenings, vaccines, and preventive checkups.
• Managing chronic conditions — how well the plan supports members with diabetes, high blood pressure, and similar long-term needs.
• Member experience — survey results on things like ease of getting appointments and satisfaction with the plan.
• Member complaints and changes in performance — how often people leave the plan, and whether service is getting better or worse.
• Customer service — call center responsiveness, timeliness of appeals, and language help.
• Drug plan measures — accuracy of pricing information, medication safety, and adherence for common prescriptions.

Each measure is scored, weighted, and rolled up into an overall star rating. CMS publishes the methodology publicly every year.

When and where the 2026 ratings post

CMS typically releases the new Star Ratings in early to mid-October, just ahead of the Annual Enrollment Period that runs October 15 through December 7. Once published, the ratings appear on the Plan Finder tool at Medicare.gov, alongside each plan's other details. They also show up in the printed Medicare & You handbook, though the online tool is always the most current.

For Sitka residents, that timing matters. Sitka is in the Sitka City and Borough, which CMS treats as a county-level service area for plan availability. When you use Plan Finder with a Sitka ZIP code, you will see the Medicare Advantage and Part D plans offered in that service area — and the stars each one earned.

How to use ratings without being sold to

Star Ratings are one input, not the whole picture. A high-rated plan is not automatically the right fit for you, and a lower-rated plan is not automatically wrong. Here is a sensible way to weigh them:

1. Start with your needs. List your doctors, your prescriptions, and the pharmacies you actually use. A plan's network and drug formulary matter far more to your day-to-day experience than its star count. 2. Look at the measures that matter to you. If customer service or drug pricing accuracy is important, you can click into a plan's rating on Medicare.gov to see how it scored on individual measures — not just the overall number. 3. Remember the ratings look backward. They reflect last year's performance. Plans can improve or slip. 4. Do not let anyone use a star rating to pressure you. Agents and marketers are not allowed to use CMS ratings as a sales hook. If a pitch leans hard on "five-star this" or "top-rated that," slow down.

The 2026 backdrop worth knowing

A few program-level changes are in effect for 2026 that shape how any Part D or Medicare Advantage drug coverage will work, regardless of stars:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 for 2026. Once you hit it, you pay $0 for covered drugs the rest of the year.
• The Part D deductible maximum is $615.
• The old coverage gap ("donut hole") is gone — as of 2025, Part D has three phases, not four.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread your drug costs into monthly installments across the year, if that helps your budget.
• IRMAA surcharges on Part B and Part D premiums begin above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.

These rules apply program-wide, so they are true no matter which plan a Sitka resident chooses.