Medicare Advantage

Before Dec. 7: a Boston checklist for sizing up your 2027 Medicare plan

For 2027, Boston is looking at 50 Medicare Advantage plans: 12 new, 14 gone since 2026, and 24 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 3 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Suffolk County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

BOSTON — Fall 2026. The envelope that landed in your mailbox in late September is doing a lot of work. It is your Medicare plan's Annual Notice of Change, and it spells out exactly how your coverage will look different on January 1, 2027. Between now and December 7, 2026, you have time to read it, compare it to what else is on offer in Suffolk County, and decide whether to stay or switch.

If you do nothing, your current plan simply renews for 2027 — with whatever changes the ANOC describes. That is fine for many people. It is also why a short review now is worth the hour.

Start with the ANOC — the letter you were sent in September

Your plan's Annual Notice of Change compares this year's plan to next year's, side by side. Read it with a pen. Flag anything that moved: the monthly premium, the drug deductible, the copays for primary care and specialists, the pharmacy tiers your medications sit on, and the list of extra benefits like dental or over-the-counter.

Keep the Evidence of Coverage too — it is the longer rulebook — but the ANOC is where the 2027 changes live.

Check your doctors and your hospital for 2027

Networks can change year to year. Before December 7, call the offices of the doctors you actually use and ask, in plain words, whether they will be in your plan's network on January 1, 2027. Do the same for your preferred hospital.

Boston residents often have strong feelings about which hospital system they want in-network — Mass General Brigham, Beth Israel Lahey, Boston Medical Center, Tufts Medical Center and others. Confirm, do not assume. A Medicare Advantage plan's network is set by the plan, not the hospital's name.

Price your prescriptions against next year's formulary

This is the step most people skip, and it is the one that catches people out. Make a list of every prescription you take, with dose and quantity. Then:

1. Go to medicare.gov and open the Plan Finder. 2. Enter your drugs and your pharmacy. 3. Look at the 2027 plans available in your ZIP code.

The tool will show your estimated annual drug cost on each plan, using the 2027 rules. Two things to remember for 2027: the Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026), and the Part D maximum deductible is $700 (up from $615 in 2026). If your drug costs are high, you can also opt into the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan to spread payments across the year.

Know how much choice you have in Suffolk County

Boston is in Suffolk County, where 11 carriers offer 52 Medicare Advantage plans for 2026, all of which include drug coverage. By plan type, that is 31 HMOs, 5 HMO-POS plans and 16 PPOs; 16 of the 52 are Special Needs Plans for people who qualify (for example, through both Medicare and MassHealth).

The carriers serving Suffolk County, in alphabetical order, are Aetna (CVS Health), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Commonwealth Care Alliance Massachusetts, Commonwealth Care Alliance, Inc., eternalHealth, Fallon Health, Humana, Mass General Brigham Health Plan, Molina Healthcare of Massachusetts, Tufts Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare. The table below lists every plan by carrier.

That is a lot to sift through. The Plan Finder lets you filter by plan type (HMO vs PPO), by whether your drugs are covered, and by whether your providers are in-network.

What is still unknown for 2027 — and what to do about it

CMS has not yet released the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, or the 2027 IRMAA income brackets that add a surcharge for higher-income enrollees. Those typically come out in November. For 2026, IRMAA surcharges begin above $109,000 in income for a single filer; the 2027 thresholds will be adjusted when CMS publishes them.

You do not need those numbers to compare Medicare Advantage or Part D plans — those plans set their own premiums, which are already published for 2027 inside the Plan Finder.

A simple December 7 checklist

• Read the ANOC. Circle any 2027 change that affects you.
• Call each doctor's office and your hospital to confirm 2027 network status.
• Enter your drugs and pharmacy into the Plan Finder at medicare.gov.
• Decide: keep the plan, switch Medicare Advantage plans, switch to Original Medicare plus a stand-alone Part D plan, or do nothing (and let the plan renew).
• If you want to make a change, submit it by December 7, 2026.

One more date worth knowing: if you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan on January 1 and change your mind, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period runs January 1 through March 31, 2027, and gives you one switch.