Medicare Advantage

Towson's 2027 Medicare Advantage carriers: who is in, who is new, who is out

Towson, Md. — The Medicare Annual Enrollment Period opens October 15, 2026 and runs through December 7, 2026, and the 2027 lineup of Medicare Advantage plans available to Towson residents is now set. Towson sits in Baltimore County, and Medicare uses the county to decide which plans an address can join. That means the roster you see this fall — which carriers are back, which plans are brand new for 2027, and which are not returning — is a Baltimore County list.

If you already have a Medicare Advantage plan, you do not have to do anything for it to renew, as long as it is offered again in 2027. Your plan's Annual Notice of Change (ANOC), mailed in September, spells out what is different next year. This article walks through how to read the county lineup, not which plan to pick.

How the 2027 lineup is organized

Medicare groups Advantage plans by carrier (the insurance company) and by plan type. The most common plan types you will see in Baltimore County are HMOs, HMO-POS plans, PPOs, and — for people who qualify — Special Needs Plans (SNPs) built around a chronic condition, dual Medicare-Medicaid eligibility, or living in a nursing home.

When you look at the county roster on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder, each carrier may offer several plans. Two plans from the same carrier can have very different networks, drug lists and extras, so "same company" does not mean "same plan." That is why comparing at the plan level, not the carrier level, matters.

New plans for 2027, and plans not returning

Every fall, some plans are added to a county, and some are discontinued or consolidated. If a plan is not returning for 2027, the carrier is required to send a non-renewal notice — usually in early October — telling you the plan will end December 31, 2026.

A non-renewal is not something to panic about. It triggers a Special Enrollment Period that runs from December 8, 2026 through the end of February 2027, giving you extra time to pick a new Medicare Advantage plan or move back to Original Medicare with a stand-alone Part D drug plan. You can act during AEP or use the SEP after.

New-for-2027 plans show up in Plan Finder the same way returning plans do, but they will not have a Star Rating yet. Ratings are assigned only after a plan has enough performance data — that is normal for a first-year plan and not a red flag.

What to compare, carrier by carrier

Rather than starting with a favorite brand, it helps to work through the same questions for every plan on the Baltimore County list:

• Are your doctors, your hospital, and any specialists you see in the plan's network for 2027?
• Are the prescriptions you take on the plan's 2027 formulary, and at what tier?
• Does the plan cover the extras that actually matter to you (dental, vision, hearing, transportation, fitness)?
• If it is a PPO, what does out-of-network coverage really look like?
• If it is an SNP, do you qualify — and will you still qualify next year?

Star Ratings, published by CMS, can give you a sense of how members rate a plan and how it handles customer service and care. They are one input, not a scoreboard.

The 2027 Part D changes that apply across every plan

Whichever plan you land on, some drug-coverage rules are set by Medicare itself and apply everywhere:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,400 in 2027, up from $2,100 in 2026. Once your covered drug spending hits that cap, you pay $0 for covered drugs the rest of the year.
• The maximum Part D deductible is $700 in 2027, up from $615 in 2026. Plans can charge less; they cannot charge more.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan is still available, letting you spread drug costs across the calendar year in monthly amounts instead of paying at the pharmacy counter.

CMS will announce the 2027 Part B premium, Part B deductible and IRMAA income brackets later this fall, usually in November. Those figures are not out yet, so treat any number you see quoted before the official release as a guess.

A simple way to work through the list

1. Wait for your ANOC (if you have a plan) and the non-renewal letter (if your plan is ending). 2. Log in at Medicare.gov, enter your Towson ZIP code and your drugs, and let Plan Finder pull the Baltimore County 2027 lineup. 3. Filter by plan type — HMO, PPO, SNP — depending on how you want your care organized. 4. Check each plan's provider directory directly, not just Plan Finder, for the doctors you use. 5. If anything is unclear, call the plan or ask a counselor before you enroll.

You have until December 7, 2026 to make a change for a January 1, 2027 start date. If you enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan and change your mind, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from January 1 through March 31, 2027 lets you switch to another Advantage plan or return to Original Medicare once.