Medicare Advantage

Before you renew in New Orleans: a step-by-step way to compare 2027 Medicare Advantage plans

Orleans Parish has 67 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 10 plans are not coming back, 12 are new, and 28 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 11 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for New Orleans, not which plan to pick.

New Orleans, fall 2026 — If you have a Medicare Advantage plan, the mail has probably started arriving. Carriers are sending their Annual Notice of Change letters, and the window to switch plans for 2027 runs from October 15 through December 7, 2026. In Orleans Parish, the lineup is shifting again next year: 12 plans are new, 10 are not returning, and a ninth carrier is joining the market. Here is a plain, step-by-step way to compare what is on offer before the deadline.

What is new in Orleans Parish for 2027

New Orleans sits in Orleans Parish, and that is the county CMS uses to decide which Medicare Advantage plans you can buy. For plan year 2027, the parish will have 67 Medicare Advantage plans from 9 carriers, up from 65 plans and 8 carriers in 2026. The newcomer is Lagniappe Advantage, offering one PPO plan.

By plan type, 2027 breaks down as 20 HMOs, 20 HMO-POS plans and 27 PPOs. All 67 include Part D drug coverage. Special Needs Plans account for 33 of the 67 — 23 Dual Eligible (D-SNP), 7 Chronic Condition (C-SNP) and 3 Institutional (I-SNP).

Twelve plans are new for 2027. Ten plans available in 2026 are not coming back. Some plans have also been renamed, which can be confusing when the ANOC lands — the plan ID is the same, but the name on the card changes. The full roster, with each plan's type and whether it includes drug coverage, is in the table on this page.

The carriers offering plans next year

The nine carriers selling Medicare Advantage in Orleans Parish for 2027, in alphabetical order:

• Aetna (CVS Health): 12 plans
• American Health Advantage of Louisiana: 2 plans
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana: 6 plans
• Centene (WellCare): 7 plans
• Devoted Health: 9 plans
• Elevance Health (Anthem): 2 plans
• Humana: 17 plans
• Lagniappe Advantage: 1 plan
• UnitedHealthcare: 11 plans

The number of plans a carrier sells does not tell you anything about whether a plan is right for you. It just sets how many options you have to open up and read.

Start with your Annual Notice of Change

If you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan, your first stop is the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) your carrier mailed in September. The ANOC lists, in one place, what is changing for 2027: the monthly premium, the deductible, copays, the drug list (formulary), the pharmacy network, extra benefits, and the provider network.

Compare the ANOC side by side with your 2026 Evidence of Coverage. Pay attention to any drug that moved to a higher tier, any specialist copay that went up, and anything the plan is dropping. If your plan is one of the 10 not returning for 2027, your ANOC will say so and explain your options.

A step-by-step way to compare plans

Once you know what your current plan is doing — or if you are shopping fresh — walk through these five checks for every plan on your short list.

1. Doctors. Call your primary care doctor's billing office and ask which Medicare Advantage plans they take for 2027. Do the same for specialists you see regularly. A plan can list a provider as "in network" on paper while the provider has stopped accepting new patients in that plan, so verify both ways.

2. Hospitals. Check that the hospital system you prefer — in New Orleans that may be Ochsner, LCMC, Tulane or another — is in the plan's network for 2027. HMO plans generally require you to stay in network; PPO plans let you go out of network at a higher cost.

3. Prescriptions. Enter every drug you take, with the dose, into the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov/plan-compare. The tool will show how each plan covers each drug, what tier it is on, and your estimated yearly drug cost.

4. Pharmacies. Set your preferred pharmacy in the Plan Finder. Costs can change a lot depending on whether a pharmacy is "preferred," "standard" or out of network for that plan. If you use mail order, check that too.

5. Plan type and rules. Decide whether you want an HMO (referrals, tight network), an HMO-POS (some out-of-network coverage), or a PPO (more flexibility, often higher premiums). In Orleans Parish, you have all three plan types in 2027.

Program-level numbers to keep in mind

A few numbers apply to every Part D drug plan, including the drug coverage built into Medicare Advantage:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026 and rises to $2,400 in 2027.
• The Part D maximum deductible is $615 in 2026 and $700 in 2027.
• The coverage gap ("donut hole") has been gone since 2025 — Part D now has three phases.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread your drug costs across the year in monthly amounts, at no extra cost. You can opt in with your plan.
• The 2027 Part B standard premium, deductible and IRMAA brackets have not been announced yet. CMS typically publishes those figures in the fall.

Tools to use (and when to call)

The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov/plan-compare is the single most useful tool: it pulls your drugs, your pharmacy and your ZIP code into a real cost estimate for every plan in Orleans Parish. You can create an account to save your drug list.

If you would rather talk to someone, 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For questions about a specific plan — a drug tier, a network doctor, an extra benefit — call the plan directly, using the number on the ANOC.