Medicare Advantage

What Medicare's Star Ratings Actually Grade — And What They Don't

For 2027, Pearl City is looking at 29 Medicare Advantage plans: 5 new, 4 gone since 2026, and 13 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 3 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Honolulu County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

PEARL CITY, Hawaii — Every fall, just before Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period opens on October 15, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes fresh Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage and Part D drug plans. If you live in Pearl City and you're weighing your options for 2027, it helps to know what those little stars are really measuring — and, just as important, what they are not.

Star Ratings are a quality yardstick, not a shopping recommendation. They summarize how a plan performed on dozens of measures, from customer service to how well members manage chronic conditions. But a five-star plan is not automatically "the right plan" for you, and a three-star plan is not automatically wrong for you. The ratings are one piece of a bigger picture.

When the ratings come out and why timing matters

CMS posts the new Star Ratings on Medicare.gov in October, right as the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) begins. That timing is deliberate: from October 15 through December 7, 2026, people with Medicare can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan for 2027. The ratings give you a look at how each plan performed over the most recent measurement period before you decide.

There is a second window too. The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period runs January 1 through March 31, allowing one change if you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan.

What the stars actually measure

Star Ratings pull together roughly 40 different quality measures. In plain English, they look at things like:

• How well plans help members stay on top of screenings, vaccines, and chronic conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
• Member experience — whether people can get appointments and needed care, and how they rate the plan overall.
• Customer service, including how quickly the plan handles appeals and complaints.
• For Part D specifically, drug pricing accuracy, drug safety, and member experience with the pharmacy benefit.

Each measure is scored, then rolled up into an overall rating from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent), in half-star steps.

What the stars do not tell you

The Star Ratings do not tell you what a plan costs, which doctors or hospitals are in its network, or whether your prescriptions are on its formulary. They also do not reflect what will happen in 2027 — the ratings look backward at past performance.

That is why CMS urges people to use Star Ratings alongside the Plan Finder tool at Medicare.gov, which lets you enter your specific medications and providers to see how each plan lines up with your life.

The Pearl City picture

Pearl City is in Honolulu County, and Medicare Advantage and Part D plan availability is set at the county level. That means the plans and ratings you see when you shop on Medicare.gov will be the same ones your neighbors across Honolulu County see. If a family member on Oahu lives in a different county, their options and ratings may look different from yours.

A few 2027 program facts worth knowing

While you are reviewing ratings, keep the wider 2027 rules in mind — they apply no matter which plan you choose:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027. Once you hit it, you pay nothing for covered drugs the rest of the year.
• The Part D maximum deductible is $615.
• The old coverage gap ("donut hole") is gone as of 2025; Part D now has three phases.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread drug costs across the year in monthly installments if that helps your budget.
• IRMAA surcharges on Part B and Part D begin above $109,000 in income for a single filer (2026).