Medicare Advantage

Before AEP: what Star Ratings do and don't tell you

People in Tinley Park can choose from 67 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 78 this year. 17 of this year’s plans are gone, 6 are new to Cook County, and 30 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 9 of them under a new name.

TINLEY PARK, Ill. — Every fall, just before Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period opens on October 15, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publishes fresh Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. Those little rows of stars will show up on Medicare's Plan Finder tool right as Tinley Park residents start comparing coverage for 2027 — and knowing what they actually measure (and what they don't) can make the shopping season a lot less confusing.

What Star Ratings actually measure

Star Ratings are CMS's way of giving each Medicare Advantage and Part D plan a quality score from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent), in half-star increments. The ratings pull together dozens of separate measures. For Medicare Advantage plans that include drug coverage, CMS looks at roughly 40 measures across categories like:

• Staying healthy — whether members get recommended screenings, vaccines, and check-ups.
• Managing chronic conditions — how well the plan supports people with diabetes, heart disease, and similar issues.
• Member experience — survey responses on ease of getting care and appointments.
• Member complaints and changes in plan performance — including how often people leave the plan.
• Customer service — how the plan handles appeals and calls.
• Drug pricing and patient safety — accuracy of pricing information and safe prescribing patterns.

Stand-alone Part D drug plans are scored on a smaller set of measures focused on drug safety, pricing, and member experience.

How and when the ratings are published

CMS posts the new Star Ratings each October on medicare.gov, timed to the start of the Annual Enrollment Period on October 15. Once they go live, the stars appear next to every plan listed in Medicare's Plan Finder tool, so Tinley Park shoppers see the same ratings a caller in Springfield or Peoria would see.

The ratings are refreshed once a year. Data behind them comes from member surveys, plan-reported information, pharmacy claims, and CMS's own monitoring — much of it from the prior year of plan performance.

What the stars are not

This is the part that trips people up. Star Ratings are a quality signal — they are not a personal recommendation, and they don't tell you:

• Whether your doctors in the south suburbs are in a plan's network.
• Whether your specific medications are on a plan's formulary.
• What your monthly premium, deductible, or copays would be.
• Whether a plan covers extras that matter to you.

Two people in the same Tinley Park ZIP code can look at the same 4-star plan and reach very different conclusions once they check networks and drug lists. The stars are one input, not the whole decision.

Why the ratings matter this fall

Star Ratings arrive at a moment of real change in Medicare. The Part D out-of-pocket cap for covered drugs is $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027, and the maximum Part D deductible is $615 in 2026 and $700 in 2027. The coverage gap — the old "donut hole" — is gone, replaced by a simpler three-phase drug benefit. The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan also lets enrollees spread drug costs across the year in monthly installments.

With so many moving pieces, quality scores give shoppers a shorthand for how a plan has actually performed for its members — useful context when you're weighing several options during the October 15–December 7 window, or during the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period that runs January 1–March 31.

How Tinley Park residents can use the ratings

Tinley Park is in Cook County, where a wide range of Medicare Advantage and Part D plans are offered. When you use Plan Finder at medicare.gov, you can:

1. Enter your ZIP code and prescriptions. 2. Compare plans side by side, with Star Ratings shown for each. 3. Click a plan's rating to see the individual category scores behind it.

If you'd rather talk it through, free one-on-one help is available from Illinois SHIP (the State Health Insurance Assistance Program), which serves Cook County residents at no cost and does not sell insurance.