Medicare Advantage

Your New Orleans Medicare review for 2027: five things to check before Dec. 7

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 — The envelope that arrived in your mailbox in late September is the single most important piece of Medicare paperwork you will see this fall. It is called the Annual Notice of Change, and it tells you exactly how your current Medicare Advantage or Part D plan will look on January 1, 2027. If something in it does not work for you, you have until December 7, 2026 to switch to a different plan for next year.

Nothing happens automatically if you do nothing. Your plan simply renews — with whatever changes the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) describes. That is why a short review now is worth the time, even if you plan to stay put.

Here is a plain checklist built for people on Medicare in New Orleans and the rest of Orleans Parish.

What is the Annual Notice of Change and why read it first?

The Annual Notice of Change is the letter your current Medicare Advantage or Part D plan mails every fall explaining what will be different next year. It should have arrived by late September 2026, and it covers things like the premium, the deductible, drug tier changes, and whether certain extras are staying.

Open it and compare it against this year's plan — side by side if you can. The companion document, the Evidence of Coverage, has the full rules. If you have tossed the paper copy, both are posted in your plan's member portal.

Are my doctors and New Orleans hospitals still in network for 2027?

Networks can change from one plan year to the next, so the only reliable answer is to check each provider against the 2027 plan directory, not the 2026 one. Plans usually post the new directory online in October, or you can call member services and ask them to confirm in writing.

If you see doctors at Ochsner, LCMC Health, Tulane or East Jefferson, confirm each one by name and location — a physician can be in network at one clinic and out at another. The same goes for any specialist you see regularly and any hospital you would want for a planned procedure.

How do I check my prescriptions against next year's plan?

Pull up your current medication list and run it through the plan's 2027 formulary, which is the list of drugs it covers. Plans add drugs, drop drugs, and move drugs between tiers every January, and the tier change is often what moves the price.

The fastest way to compare across plans is the Plan Finder at medicare.gov: type in your drugs, your pharmacy and your ZIP code, and it will show the estimated yearly drug cost under each plan available in Orleans Parish. For 2027, Medicare caps what you pay out of pocket for covered Part D drugs at $2,400, up from $2,100 in 2026, and the maximum Part D deductible a plan can charge is $700, up from $615 in 2026. If drug costs stretch your monthly budget, ask about the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which spreads what you owe across the calendar year.

How many Medicare Advantage plans are offered in Orleans Parish for 2026?

New Orleans is in Orleans Parish, where CMS lists 65 Medicare Advantage plans from 8 carriers for the 2026 plan year. By plan type that breaks down to 20 HMOs, 20 HMO-POS plans and 25 PPOs; 30 of the 65 are Special Needs Plans, which are limited to people who qualify (for example, those with both Medicare and Medicaid, or with certain chronic conditions). All 65 include drug coverage.

The eight carriers serving the parish, in alphabetical order, are Aetna (CVS Health), American Health Advantage of Louisiana, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Centene (WellCare), Devoted Health, Elevance Health (Anthem), Humana, and UnitedHealthcare. The table below lists every plan each carrier offers. CMS will post the 2027 Landscape file later this fall, and the counts can shift when it does.

When is the Medicare deadline and what if I miss December 7?

December 7, 2026 is the last day to pick a different Medicare Advantage or Part D plan for 2027 coverage that starts January 1. If you take no action, you stay in your current plan with the 2027 changes described in your ANOC.

If you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan and change your mind after January 1, you have one more window: the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, January 1 through March 31, 2027. During those months you can switch to a different Advantage plan once, or drop back to Original Medicare and add a stand-alone Part D plan. It does not let someone on Original Medicare jump into an Advantage plan.

A few 2027 numbers are still pending. CMS typically announces the Part B standard premium, the Part B deductible, and the IRMAA income brackets in November — watch medicare.gov for those.