Medicare Advantage

The full 2027 Medicare Advantage lineup in Little Rock, carrier by carrier

Pulaski County has 73 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 16 plans are not coming back, 12 are new, and 31 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 13 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for Little Rock, not which plan to pick.

Medicare AdvantageLittle Rock, AR

Little Rock shoppers heading into the fall enrollment window have a long menu to sort through. Little Rock sits in Pulaski County, where the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) counts 60 Medicare Advantage plans for the 2027 plan year, offered by ten carriers. The table below lists every plan by carrier, along with its plan type and drug-coverage status, so you can see the full lineup in one place.

What "available" means here

Medicare Advantage availability is set at the county level, not the city level. That means the 60 plans listed for Pulaski County are the plans a Little Rock resident can choose from. Someone a few miles away in a different county may see a different list. The counts on this page come from the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source File for the 2027 plan year.

One more note about the local market: CMS also reports zero stand-alone Part D drug plans tied to this Medicare Advantage landscape file for the county. Stand-alone Part D plans (PDPs) are normally paired with Original Medicare, and readers who want one should check the Medicare Plan Finder directly for the PDPs available in Arkansas.

The carriers offering plans in Little Rock

Ten carriers offer Medicare Advantage plans in Pulaski County for 2027, including Healthy Arkansas, Inc., which is new to the county this year. In alphabetical order:

• Aetna (CVS Health): 11 plans (HMO, PPO; 5 Special Needs)
• Arkansas Blue Medicare: 3 plans (HMO, PFFS)
• Arkansas Superior Select Health Plans: 2 plans (HMO, HMO-POS; 2 Special Needs)
• Blue Cross Blue Shield (HCSC): 5 plans (HMO, PPO; 2 Special Needs)
• Centene (WellCare): 12 plans (HMO-POS, PPO; 5 Special Needs)
• Devoted Health: 8 plans (PPO; 6 Special Needs)
• Essence Healthcare: 2 plans (HMO, PPO)
• Humana: 20 plans (HMO, HMO-POS, PFFS, PPO; 7 Special Needs)
• UnitedHealthcare: 14 plans (HMO-POS, PPO; 7 Special Needs)

The full table on this page lists each plan by name.

The plan types you'll see

The 77 plans in the county break down like this: 13 HMO, 19 HMO-POS, 42 PPO and 3 PFFS.

• HMO (Health Maintenance Organization). You generally use in-network doctors and often need a referral to see a specialist.
• HMO-POS (Point of Service). An HMO with a limited out-of-network option for certain services.
• PPO (Preferred Provider Organization). More flexibility to see out-of-network providers, usually at a higher cost.
• PFFS (Private Fee-for-Service). You can see any Medicare provider who agrees to the plan's terms.

Which type fits best depends on how you use care, whether your doctors are in-network, and your travel patterns. None of these types is automatically better than another.

Special Needs Plans in the mix

Of the 77 plans, 34 are Special Needs Plans. SNPs are Medicare Advantage plans limited to people who meet specific requirements. The three types are:

• D-SNP — for people with both Medicare and Medicaid ("dual eligible").
• C-SNP — for people with certain chronic conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease.
• I-SNP — for people who live in an institution such as a nursing home, or who need that level of care at home.

You can only enroll in a SNP if you meet its eligibility rules. The full table marks each SNP with its type.

Key dates for 2027 coverage

• October 15 – December 7: Medicare Annual Enrollment Period. You can join, switch or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan for coverage starting January 1.
• January 1 – March 31: Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan, you can switch to another Medicare Advantage plan or return to Original Medicare (and add a Part D plan) once during this window.

Program-wide facts worth knowing for 2027

These apply nationally, not just in Little Rock:

• Part D out-of-pocket cap: $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027. Once your covered drug spending hits that amount, you pay nothing for covered Part D drugs the rest of the year.
• Part D deductible: Plans can charge up to $615 in 2026 and up to $700 in 2027.
• Coverage gap: The old "donut hole" was eliminated in 2025. Part D now has three phases (deductible, initial coverage, catastrophic).
• Medicare Prescription Payment Plan: Optional. It lets you spread your Part D out-of-pocket costs across monthly payments rather than paying at the pharmacy counter.
• IRMAA: Income-related Part B and Part D surcharges start above $109,000 for a single filer in 2026.

How to compare the plans on this list

Because compliance rules limit what we can publish about individual plans, the best next step is to run your own comparison:

1. Go to medicare.gov and open the Plan Finder. Enter your ZIP code and your prescriptions. 2. Compare premiums, deductibles, drug coverage, provider networks and star ratings side by side. 3. Confirm your doctors and preferred pharmacy are in-network before you enroll. 4. Read the plan's Summary of Benefits and Evidence of Coverage for the details.

For free, unbiased help, contact Arkansas SHIIP (the State Health Insurance Information Program) or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), available 24/7.