Medicare Advantage

Before Dec 7: how to read your Riverside ANOC

Riverside County has 88 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 17 plans are not coming back, 14 are new, and 52 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 20 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for Riverside, not which plan to pick.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The fall window to change your Medicare coverage for next year is open now and closes December 7, 2026. Any switch you make takes effect January 1, 2027. If you do nothing, your current Medicare Advantage plan rolls over for 2027 — as long as the carrier still offers it — with whatever changes are spelled out in the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) that landed in your mailbox in September.

For 2027, Riverside County will have 88 Medicare Advantage plans from 18 carriers, according to the CMS Landscape Source File. That is a slightly smaller lineup than this year, with 14 new plans, 17 not returning, and some plans renamed. Those shifts are exactly why it is worth spending an hour this fall to compare — even if you plan to stay put.

How many Medicare Advantage plans will Riverside have in 2027?

Riverside is in Riverside County, where 88 Medicare Advantage plans from 18 carriers are offered for 2027. By plan type, that breaks down to 69 HMO, 15 HMO-POS, and 4 PPO plans. Most — 84 of the 88 — include Part D prescription drug coverage.

The county also offers 41 Special Needs Plans (SNPs) for 2027: 6 D-SNPs for people who have both Medicare and Medi-Cal, 33 C-SNPs for people with certain chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease, and 2 I-SNPs for people living in an institutional setting. The table below lists every plan available for 2027.

Carriers serving Riverside County for 2027 include Aetna (CVS Health), Align Senior Care, Alignment Health Plan, Astiva Health, Blue Shield of California, Centene (WellCare), Champion Heath Plan, Clever Care Health Plan, Elevance Health (Anthem), Elite Health Plan, Humana, IEHP DualChoice, Imperial Health Plan of California, Kaiser Permanente, Molina Healthcare of California, SCAN Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare, and VillageHealth.

What is new in Riverside County's 2027 lineup?

For 2027, Riverside County sees 14 new Medicare Advantage plans, 17 plans that are not returning, and 20 plans renamed. The total dropped by three plans and one carrier compared with 2026.

If your plan is one of the ones not returning, you will have received a non-renewal letter from your carrier, and you have a Special Enrollment Period that lets you pick a new plan. If your plan was renamed, your coverage probably continues under the new name — but the specifics (what you pay, which doctors are in-network, which drugs are covered) can still change. The Annual Notice of Change is the document that spells out what is different for 2027.

What is the Annual Notice of Change, and why does it matter?

The Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) is a document your Medicare Advantage or Part D plan is required to send you each September. It compares your plan's rules for the current year against the rules for the coming year — side by side.

The ANOC is the single most useful piece of mail you will get this season. Pull it out and look specifically at: the monthly premium, the deductible, primary care and specialist copays, the maximum out-of-pocket limit, the drug formulary tier for the medicines you take, the pharmacy network, and any changes to extra benefits like dental, vision or over-the-counter cards. If something you rely on is changing, that is your cue to compare other plans before December 7.

How do I compare Riverside Medicare Advantage plans step by step?

The clearest tool is the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov. Here is a straightforward way to work through it.

1. Make a list. Write down your prescription drugs with dosages, your pharmacy (or two), your primary care doctor, any specialists you see, and the hospital you prefer. 2. Go to medicare.gov/plan-compare and enter your Riverside ZIP code. You will see every Medicare Advantage plan offered in Riverside County for 2027. 3. Enter your drugs and your pharmacy. Plan Finder will then show you each plan's full-year estimated drug cost based on your actual medicines, not an average. 4. Check the provider network. Click into any plan and search for your doctor and hospital by name. Also call the office — networks update throughout the year, and the plan's own directory is the authority. 5. Review the plan type. HMO plans generally require you to stay in-network and get referrals; HMO-POS plans allow some out-of-network care; PPO plans give you more flexibility to go out-of-network at a higher cost. 6. Read the Star Rating and the plan's Summary of Benefits. The Star Rating is CMS's quality measure; the Summary of Benefits lays out copays and extras. 7. If you qualify for a Special Needs Plan, filter for SNPs. For 2027 Riverside County has D-SNPs (Medicare + Medi-Cal), C-SNPs (chronic conditions) and I-SNPs (institutional). 8. Compare three to five plans at most. Too many choices get muddled. Pick the finalists based on your drugs, your doctors, and your total expected cost — not just the premium.

If you prefer to talk to a human, 1-800-MEDICARE is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

What else is changing for 2027?

A few program-wide numbers are already confirmed for 2027. The Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 (from $2,100 in 2026), meaning once you spend that much on covered drugs, you pay $0 for the rest of the calendar year. The Part D maximum deductible rises to $700 (from $615 in 2026). The optional Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which lets you spread drug costs across the year in monthly installments, continues to be available.

The 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets have not been announced yet. CMS typically publishes those figures later in the fall.