Medicare Advantage

Before Dec. 7: an Indianapolis checklist for reading your 2027 ANOC

For 2027, Indianapolis is looking at 79 Medicare Advantage plans: 15 new, 14 gone since 2026, and 29 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 7 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Marion County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

INDIANAPOLIS — It is fall 2026, and the envelope that matters most this season has probably already landed in your mailbox. It is called the Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, and your Medicare Advantage or Part D plan is required to send it before the Annual Enrollment Period opens on October 15. The window to switch, drop or join a plan for 2027 coverage runs through December 7, 2026. Any choice you make takes effect January 1, 2027.

If you do nothing, nothing dramatic happens: your current plan renews for 2027 if it is still offered, with whatever changes the ANOC spells out. The point of this checklist is to make sure those changes still work for you — your doctors, your hospital, your prescriptions — before the deadline passes.

Start with the ANOC, not the ads

Before any TV commercial or mailer, pull out the ANOC your current plan sent you. It is usually a short document that compares this year's plan to next year's, line by line: the monthly premium, the deductible, primary and specialist copays, hospital cost-sharing, the out-of-pocket maximum, and the drug tiers.

Read it next to your current Evidence of Coverage (EOC), which is the longer booklet that spells out the rules in detail. If a number in the ANOC jumps out — a copay you use often, for example — the EOC will tell you how it actually applies.

Jot down anything that changed. Those are the items worth checking against your real life.

Check your doctors and your hospital for 2027

Networks are set plan by plan and year by year. A provider who is in-network in 2026 is not guaranteed to be in-network in 2027, and the reverse is also true.

For each plan you are considering (including the one you already have):

• Look up every regular doctor and specialist in the plan's 2027 online provider directory.
• Confirm your preferred hospital system in Indianapolis — for example, the one where your specialist admits — is listed for 2027.
• If you use a specific surgery center, dialysis center, home health agency or skilled nursing facility, check those too.
• When in doubt, call the provider's billing office and ask which 2027 plans they will accept. Then call the plan to confirm. Both answers should match.

HMO and HMO-POS plans generally require you to use in-network providers except for emergencies. PPO plans let you go out of network at a higher cost. PFFS plans work differently again. The plan type is listed next to each plan name in the table below.

Check every prescription against the 2027 formulary

Each Part D and Medicare Advantage drug plan publishes a formulary — the list of drugs it covers and the tier each one sits on. Formularies change every year. A drug can move to a higher tier, require prior authorization, or come off the list entirely.

Make a written list of every prescription you take, with the dose and how often. Then, for each plan you are considering:

• Look up each drug in the 2027 formulary.
• Note the tier, any step therapy or prior authorization notes, and the preferred pharmacies in your area.
• The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov lets you enter your drugs and your pharmacy and compare plans side by side.

A few program-level numbers to keep in mind as you compare drug coverage: in 2027, the Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026), and the Part D maximum deductible is $700 (up from $615 in 2026). The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which lets you spread drug costs across the year in monthly installments, remains an option you can request from your plan.

Know what Marion County has to choose from

Indianapolis is in Marion County, where the 2026 CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape lists 78 Medicare Advantage plans from 11 carriers available for the 2027 plan year. All 78 include drug coverage. By plan type, that breaks down to 21 HMO, 13 HMO-POS, 43 PPO and 1 PFFS. Twenty-nine of them are Special Needs Plans (SNPs), designed for people with specific chronic conditions, people who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, or people living in an institutional setting.

The carriers offering Advantage plans in Marion County for 2027 are Aetna (CVS Health), American Health Advantage of Indiana, Centene (WellCare), Communicare Advantage, Devoted Health, Elevance Health (Anthem), Humana, MyTruAdvantage, Provider Partners Health Plans, UnitedHealthcare and Zing Health. The table below lists every plan by carrier.

This is availability, not a recommendation. The right plan depends on your doctors, your drugs and your budget — which is exactly what the checklist above is for.

A few things that are not yet set for 2027

CMS has not yet announced the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible or the 2027 IRMAA income brackets and surcharges. Those are typically published later in the fall, usually in November. Ignore anyone who claims to know those numbers now; wait for the official figures on medicare.gov.

Also worth remembering: if you choose a Medicare Advantage plan during AEP and change your mind, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period runs January 1 – March 31, 2027. During that window you can switch to a different Advantage plan once, or go back to Original Medicare.

Where to get personalized help

The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov is the official tool for comparing 2027 plans with your actual drugs and pharmacy. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For questions about a specific plan's 2027 network, formulary or benefits, call that plan's member services line, which is printed on your member ID card and in the ANOC.