Medicare Advantage

What’s Changing in Maryland Medicare Advantage for 2027: 20 Plans Leaving, 16 Changing

BALTIMORE — Maryland's Medicare Advantage lineup is getting smaller for the 2027 plan year, and most of the state will feel it. According to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source Files, Maryland had 63 Medicare Advantage plans available for 2026 and has 47 for 2027. Twenty plans that were offered somewhere in Maryland for 2026 will not be offered anywhere in the state for 2027, 16 plans that continue are changing in at least one county, 27 are continuing unchanged, and 4 are new.

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Every one of Maryland's 24 counties sees at least one plan leave or change. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan here, this is the year to open the envelope.

What the statewide numbers mean

The two CMS Landscape files — one for the current plan year and one for the coming plan year — are how CMS publishes what Medicare Advantage plans will be sold where. Comparing Maryland's 2026 file to its 2027 file, the state goes from 63 Medicare Advantage plans to 47. Each plan is counted once statewide, no matter how many counties it covers.

CMS's categories, in plain English:

• Leaving: a plan was offered somewhere in Maryland for 2026 and will not be offered anywhere in Maryland for 2027. Maryland has 20 of these.
• Changing: a plan is offered both years, but in at least one county, its premium, drug deductible, plan type or plan name is different in the 2027 file than in the 2026 file. Maryland has 16 of these. The specifics of what changed, and by how much, are in each plan's Annual Notice of Change.
• Continuing unchanged: 27 plans in Maryland fall here.
• New: 4 plans appear in Maryland's 2027 file that were not in the 2026 file.

Three carriers that had Maryland plans listed for 2026 do not have Maryland plans listed in the 2027 Landscape file: Aetna Medicare, Communicare Advantage, and Provider Partners Health Plans.

If your plan is leaving

If your Medicare Advantage plan is one of the 20 not being offered in Maryland for 2027, your plan sponsor is required to send you a non-renewal notice. You will not be dropped from Medicare — your Part A and Part B stay in place — but your current Medicare Advantage plan ends on December 31, 2026.

You have two separate windows to act:

• The Annual Enrollment Period (AEP): October 15 through December 7, 2026. A choice made here takes effect January 1, 2027.
• A Special Enrollment Period (SEP) for a non-renewed plan: runs through the end of February 2027. You can use this time to join another Medicare Advantage plan or go back to Original Medicare and add a stand-alone Part D drug plan.

If you do nothing, your coverage under the non-renewed plan ends and you default to Original Medicare starting January 1, 2027, without a drug plan. That is why the SEP matters — it gives you a cushion into February, but it does not replace the AEP.

If your plan is changing

Sixteen Maryland plans are continuing into 2027 but are flagged in the CMS file as different in at least one county. That difference may be in the premium, the drug deductible, the plan type, or the plan name — the Landscape file simply tells us a change exists.

The document that spells out exactly what is changing for your plan, in your county, is the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC). Your plan is required to send it to you by late September. If you do nothing during the AEP, you stay enrolled and the ANOC's changes take effect January 1, 2027. That is the quiet default — and the reason to read the booklet rather than set it aside.

The counties with the most change

Every Maryland county — 24 of 24 — has at least one plan leaving or changing. The counts below are plans leaving and plans changing in each county, from the CMS files:

• Baltimore County: 14 leaving, 12 changing
• Montgomery County: 14 leaving, 12 changing
• Carroll County: 15 leaving, 7 changing
• Anne Arundel County: 9 leaving, 12 changing
• Frederick County: 12 leaving, 9 changing
• Harford County: 9 leaving, 10 changing
• Prince George's County: 11 leaving, 8 changing
• Howard County: 7 leaving, 11 changing

A plan that leaves statewide is counted in every county where it was offered, and the same plan can appear in both the "leaving" column of one county and the "changing" column of another if its 2027 footprint shrinks instead of disappearing entirely.

What to do before December 7

A simple checklist for Maryland residents between now and December 7, 2026:

1. Watch the mail in September and October. The ANOC (if your plan is renewing) and any non-renewal notice (if it is not) arrive during this window. 2. Confirm your plan's status for 2027. Is it continuing unchanged, changing, or leaving Maryland? 3. Check your doctors, hospitals and pharmacies against the 2027 network, and your prescriptions against the 2027 drug list. 4. Compare on Medicare.gov using the Plan Finder with your ZIP code and your medication list. 5. Make any change during AEP (October 15 – December 7, 2026) so coverage starts January 1, 2027. If your plan is not renewed, remember the SEP runs through the end of February 2027.

Where to get free help

You do not have to figure this out alone, and you do not have to pay anyone to help:

• Medicare.gov — the official federal site, with the Plan Finder tool for 2027 plans in your ZIP code.
• 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, TTY 1-877-486-2048.
• Maryland's State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), known locally as Maryland SHIP / SMP — free, one-on-one counseling from trained volunteers who do not sell insurance.