Medicare Advantage

Detroit Medicare checklist for 2027: what your ANOC says before Dec. 7

For 2027, Detroit is looking at 86 Medicare Advantage plans: 12 new, 16 gone since 2026, and 37 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 5 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Wayne County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

DETROIT — The envelope that landed 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, or ANOC, and it tells you exactly how your current Medicare plan will be different on January 1, 2027. If you want anything to change, you have until December 7, 2026 to act.

Annual Enrollment is open now through December 7, 2026. Any change you make during that window takes effect January 1. If you do nothing, your current plan simply renews next year — with every one of the changes buried in that ANOC.

Start with the ANOC — and read it like a bill

Your ANOC should have arrived by September 30, 2026. It is not junk mail. It compares your plan today with the same plan as it will be on January 1, 2027. Sit down with last year's materials and a highlighter, and walk through these lines:

• The monthly premium (yours, not the "average").
• The medical deductible and the yearly out-of-pocket maximum.
• Primary care, specialist, urgent care and emergency room copays.
• The Part D drug deductible and the tier your regular medicines sit on.
• Any extra benefits — dental, vision, hearing, OTC allowance, transportation.

If something in the ANOC surprises you, that is the signal to look at other options before December 7. If nothing surprises you and the plan still fits, you do not have to do anything.

Check your doctors and hospitals for 2027

Networks change every January. A clinic that was in-network in 2026 may not be in 2027, and the opposite is also true. Before you decide to stay or switch:

1. Make a short list of the providers you actually use — your primary care doctor, any specialists, and the Detroit-area hospital system you prefer (Henry Ford, DMC, Beaumont/Corewell East, Ascension, Trinity Health). 2. Open your plan's 2027 provider directory on the carrier's website, or call the number on your member card and ask specifically about 2027. 3. Call your doctor's billing office too. Offices often know by October which plans they will accept the following year.

For a Medicare Advantage HMO, an out-of-network doctor usually means you pay the full bill. For a PPO, you still pay more out of network. This step is worth the phone calls.

Check your prescriptions against next year's formulary

Drug lists (formularies) are rewritten every year. A medication can move to a higher tier, require prior authorization, or be dropped. Pull your prescription bottles together and:

• Look up each drug on your plan's 2027 formulary.
• Note the tier and whether prior authorization or step therapy applies.
• Confirm your pharmacy is still a preferred pharmacy for 2027.

Two program-level numbers for 2027 are already set by CMS: the Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026), and the maximum Part D deductible is $700 (up from $615 in 2026). The coverage gap is gone — drug coverage now has three phases. If high monthly drug costs are a worry, ask your plan about the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which spreads your out-of-pocket drug costs across the year.

Know what's available in Wayne County

Detroit is in Wayne County, where CMS's 2026 Landscape file lists 90 Medicare Advantage plans from 16 carriers — 31 HMOs, 18 HMO-POS plans and 41 PPOs, including 21 Special Needs Plans. Every one of those plans includes drug coverage. The carriers serving the county, in alphabetical order, are:

Aetna (CVS Health), Align Senior Care, AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care, Blue Care Network, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Centene (WellCare), HAP CareSource MI Coordinated Health, Health Alliance Plan by Henry Ford Health, Humana, Longevity Health Plan, McLaren Medicare, Molina Healthcare of Michigan, Priority Health Medicare, Trinity Health Plan of Michigan, UnitedHealthcare and Zing Health.

The table below lists every 2026 plan by carrier. CMS posts the 2027 lineup on the Medicare Plan Finder in October — that is the authoritative place to compare side by side for next year.

A few 2027 numbers that are not out yet

Two figures that affect many Detroit retirees have not been announced yet: the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets (the surcharges higher-income beneficiaries pay on Part B and Part D). CMS typically publishes those in November. Be careful of mailers or ads that quote a specific 2027 Part B premium before CMS releases it — nobody has that number yet.

For context, IRMAA surcharges begin above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.

If you miss December 7

The Annual Enrollment Period closes December 7, 2026. If you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan, there is a second window — the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, January 1 through March 31, 2027 — that lets you switch to a different Advantage plan or drop back to Original Medicare once. It does not help someone who only has Original Medicare and wants to add Part D.