Medicare Advantage

Does Blue Cross Blue Shield fit your Glendale needs?

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Fall 2026. If you have a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Medicare Advantage plan in Glendale, or you are shopping one for next year, the 2027 lineup is set. For plan year 2027, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona offers four Medicare Advantage plans in Maricopa County, which includes Glendale — all HMOs, all with drug coverage, and one of them new for next year. The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, and any change you make takes effect January 1, 2027.

What Medicare Advantage plans does Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona offer in Glendale for 2027?

In Maricopa County, which Glendale sits inside, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona has four Medicare Advantage plans listed with CMS for 2027. All four are HMOs, all four include drug coverage, and one is a Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plan (D-SNP) for people who have both Medicare and Medicaid. The carrier has no PPO, C-SNP or I-SNP offerings in the county next year.

The table below lists every plan. In alphabetical order, they are Blue Best Life Classic (HMO), Blue Best Life Plus (HMO), Blue Best Life Select (HMO), and Health Choice Pathway (HMO D-SNP).

What is new or not returning in the 2027 lineup?

One plan is new for 2027: Blue Best Life Select (HMO). None of the carrier's 2026 Glendale-area plans are leaving the county, and none are being renamed. That means if you are enrolled in Blue Best Life Classic, Blue Best Life Plus, or Health Choice Pathway, your plan is still being offered next year — but it may change in other ways. Those changes are spelled out in the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) your plan mailed in late September.

Read the ANOC before December 7, 2026. It is the single document that tells you what is different about your specific plan next year.

How do I check a plan against my doctors and prescriptions before December 7?

Use the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov. It is the only tool that lets you type in your drug list and your pharmacies and see how each plan would handle them for 2027. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE (TTY 1-877-486-2048), 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A simple checklist before you decide:

• Enter every prescription you take, with dose and quantity.
• Add the pharmacies you actually use.
• Check each doctor and hospital against the plan's own provider directory on the carrier's website, since Plan Finder does not show networks in detail.
• Read the plan's Evidence of Coverage for the full rules.

Formularies, pharmacy networks and provider networks can change from one plan year to the next, so a plan that fit in 2026 may fit differently in 2027.

How does a Special Needs Plan differ from a regular Medicare Advantage HMO?

A Special Needs Plan (SNP) is a Medicare Advantage plan limited to people who meet specific eligibility rules. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona's SNP in the county, Health Choice Pathway (HMO D-SNP), is a Dual-Eligible SNP — it is for people who qualify for both Medicare and Arizona Medicaid (AHCCCS). The other three Blue Best Life HMOs are open to any Medicare-eligible resident of the plan's service area.

If you are not sure whether you qualify for a D-SNP, Medicare.gov and 1-800-MEDICARE can confirm your status.

What are the 2027 Medicare numbers I should know?

CMS has published a few program-level figures for 2027 that apply no matter which plan you choose:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,400 in 2027, up from $2,100 in 2026.
• The Part D maximum deductible is $700 in 2027, up from $615 in 2026.
• The Part D national base beneficiary premium for 2027 is $41.33 (this is a formula input, not what any particular plan charges).

The 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets, have not been announced yet. CMS typically publishes those in the fall, usually in November. The coverage gap, or "donut hole," was eliminated in 2025, so Part D now has three phases.

The optional Medicare Prescription Payment Plan is still available in 2027, letting you spread your drug costs across the year in monthly bills instead of paying at the pharmacy counter.

What if I do nothing by December 7, 2026?

Nothing dramatic. If your current plan is offered again in 2027, it renews automatically with the changes described in its ANOC. You keep your coverage into January without doing anything. If you want a different plan — including Blue Best Life Select or any of the roughly 92 Medicare Advantage plans offered across all 16 carriers in Maricopa County for 2027 — you need to enroll by December 7, 2026.

You also get a second window after that: the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, January 1 through March 31, 2027, lets anyone already in a Medicare Advantage plan switch to a different one or return to Original Medicare once.