Medicare Advantage

Shopping for a 2027 Medicare Advantage plan in Tampa? Start with these six checks

Hillsborough County has 124 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 29 plans are not coming back, 20 are new, and 51 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 19 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for Tampa, not which plan to pick.

Tampa, Fla. — Fall 2026. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan in the Tampa area, this is the stretch of the year when it pays to slow down and compare. The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, and any change you make takes effect January 1, 2027. Tampa sits in Hillsborough County, and CMS's 2027 Landscape file shows 124 Medicare Advantage plans from 18 carriers available in the county next year — a different lineup than 2026, with 20 new plans and 29 not returning. That is a lot to sort through, but a short, repeatable method makes it manageable.

What's actually new in Tampa for 2027

The headline number for Hillsborough County is modest: 124 plans in 2027 versus 133 in 2026, offered by 18 carriers instead of 19. But the churn under that number matters more than the total. CMS lists 20 new plans entering the county, 29 not returning, and a handful renamed. The table on this page shows every plan by carrier; the names and plan IDs you see on your current member card are what to match against it.

HealthSpring is listed as its own carrier in the 2027 file for Hillsborough, alongside Centene (WellCare). Carrier plan counts for 2027 range from one plan (Longevity Health Plan) to 28 plans at Humana and 16 at UnitedHealthcare. Devoted Health lists 11 plans, Elevance Health (Anthem) 15, and Aetna (CVS Health) 9. A full breakdown by carrier and plan type is in the table below.

If your current plan is in the "not returning" group, your carrier is required to send a non-renewal notice and you get a Special Enrollment Period to pick something else. If it is renewing, your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) — the booklet that arrived in September — spells out what is changing on January 1.

Plan types and Special Needs Plans available

For 2027, Hillsborough County's 124 plans break down as:

• HMO: 80
• HMO-POS: 19
• PPO: 25

HMOs generally ask you to stay inside a network and pick a primary care doctor. HMO-POS plans add a limited out-of-network option. PPOs let you see out-of-network providers, usually at a higher cost share. None of those is "better" — the right fit depends on which doctors and hospitals you want to keep using.

Special Needs Plans (SNPs) are built for specific situations. The county has:

• 35 Dual Eligible SNPs (D-SNP) — for people with both Medicare and Medicaid.
• 28 Chronic Condition SNPs (C-SNP) — for people with qualifying conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung disease or end-stage renal disease.
• 9 Institutional SNPs (I-SNP) — for people who live in a nursing facility or need that level of care at home.

Every one of the 124 plans in the county includes Part D drug coverage.

A step-by-step way to compare plans

Rather than scrolling through dozens of plans, work in this order:

1. Start with your ANOC. Open the Annual Notice of Change your current plan mailed. It compares your 2026 plan to the same plan in 2027: premium, deductible, copays, drug tier changes, and any network changes. If nothing important changed and you are happy, you may be done.

2. Check your doctors and hospitals. Make a short list of the providers you actually use — primary care, any specialists, and your preferred hospital system in the Tampa Bay area. For each plan you are considering, confirm each provider is in-network for the specific 2027 plan, not just "the carrier." The best way is to call the plan's member services line and the provider's billing office; online directories can lag.

3. Check your prescriptions. On medicare.gov, open the Medicare Plan Finder, sign in with your Medicare account, and enter every drug you take with dose and frequency. The Plan Finder will show, for each plan, whether each drug is covered, which tier it sits on, any prior authorization or step therapy, and your estimated annual drug cost.

4. Check your pharmacies. Add the pharmacies you actually use. "Preferred" pharmacies usually mean lower cost-sharing than "standard" network pharmacies, and mail order may be cheaper for maintenance drugs. If you only use one neighborhood pharmacy, that single detail can decide the plan.

5. Compare total yearly cost, not just premium. The Plan Finder adds up premiums, expected drug costs and typical medical cost-sharing. A $0 premium plan is not automatically cheaper once copays and drug tiers are in. Also look at the plan's maximum out-of-pocket limit for medical services.

6. Look at extras honestly. Dental, vision, hearing, over-the-counter allowances and transportation vary a lot. Count the ones you will actually use.

7. Note the Star Rating as context, not as a verdict. CMS Star Ratings summarize quality and member experience. They are useful background, but they do not override whether your doctors and drugs are covered.

2027 Part D figures worth knowing

Two program-wide numbers change on January 1, 2027:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap goes to $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026). Once your out-of-pocket spending on covered drugs hits that cap, you pay $0 for the rest of the year.
• The Part D maximum deductible a plan may charge rises to $700 (up from $615 in 2026). Many plans charge less than the maximum.

The coverage gap ("donut hole") has been gone since 2025 — Part D now has three phases. If paying drug costs in big chunks is hard, ask about the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which spreads out-of-pocket drug costs across the calendar year in monthly bills at no extra cost.

CMS has not yet published the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible or the 2027 IRMAA income brackets; those usually come out in November. Use medicare.gov for the official numbers once they post.

If you do nothing

Nothing bad happens automatically. If your plan is offered again in 2027, you stay in it under the terms described in your ANOC. If it is one of the 29 Hillsborough County plans not returning for 2027, your carrier will tell you and you will have a Special Enrollment Period to choose another plan. You also have the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, January 1 – March 31, 2027, to switch to a different MA plan or go back to Original Medicare once, if your January 1 coverage is not working out.