Medicare Advantage

Dec. 7, 2026: The Date Every Minneapolis Enrollee Should Know

People in Minneapolis can choose from 25 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 32 this year. 13 of this year’s plans are gone, 6 are new to Hennepin County, and 9 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 3 of them under a new name.

MINNEAPOLIS — The envelope that lands in Medicare households every fall has a plain name and a big job. It is called the Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, and it tells you exactly how your current Medicare Advantage or Part D plan will look in 2027. If you want to make a switch based on what you read, you have until Dec. 7, 2026.

That is the deadline for the Annual Enrollment Period, which runs Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, 2026. Any change you make in that window takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. If you do nothing, your current plan simply renews next year with the updates described in your ANOC — assuming your carrier still offers it.

Here is a Minneapolis-friendly checklist for working through that review.

Start with the ANOC — don't skip to the brochure

Your ANOC usually arrives by late September. It is the single most useful document in your mailbox because it compares your plan's 2026 rules to its 2027 rules, side by side.

Flag any changes to:

• The monthly premium and the plan deductible
• Primary care, specialist, urgent care and emergency room copays
• The drug tiers and what you pay at the pharmacy
• Extra benefits like dental, vision, hearing or over-the-counter allowances
• The maximum out-of-pocket limit for the year

If something looks different from what you are used to, write it down. That is your short list of questions when you compare plans.

Check your doctors and hospitals for 2027

Networks are set one year at a time, so a clinic that was in-network in 2026 is not guaranteed to be in-network in 2027. For Minneapolis residents, that usually means confirming:

• Your primary care clinic (for many, that is an Allina, Fairview, HealthPartners, Hennepin Healthcare or North Memorial location)
• Any specialists you see regularly
• The hospital you would want to use for a planned procedure

Call the plan's member services line and ask them to confirm each provider for the 2027 plan year, not the current one. Then call the clinic itself and ask the same question. Both answers should match before you rely on them.

Run your prescriptions through the 2027 formulary

A plan's drug list — the formulary — is updated every year. Drugs can move tiers, require prior authorization, or come off the list entirely. Pull your current medications (name, dose, how often) and check each one against your plan's 2027 formulary, which the plan posts along with the ANOC.

Two 2027 numbers that apply across all Part D and Medicare Advantage drug plans:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,400 in 2027 (up from $2,100 in 2026).
• The Part D maximum deductible is $700 in 2027 (up from $615 in 2026).

The coverage gap, or "donut hole," has been gone since 2025. If drug costs are hard to spread across the year, ask about the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which lets you pay your share in monthly installments instead of all at once at the pharmacy.

Know what's on the shelf in Hennepin County

Minneapolis is in Hennepin County, where Medicare Advantage availability is set. For 2026, Hennepin County residents can choose among 32 Medicare Advantage plans from 6 carriers: Aetna (CVS Health), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Blue Plus, HealthPartners, Medica and UnitedHealthcare. Of those, 28 are PPOs, 3 are HMOs and 1 is an HMO-POS; 7 are Special Needs Plans for people with specific conditions or dual Medicare-Medicaid eligibility. All 32 include drug coverage.

The table below lists every plan by carrier. The official 2027 lineup will be published on the Medicare Plan Finder at Medicare.gov when enrollment opens on Oct. 15, 2026.

Compare on Medicare's Plan Finder, not on a mailer

The most reliable place to compare is Medicare.gov's Plan Finder. You can enter your ZIP code and your drug list, and it will show every available plan in your area side by side with cost estimates that reflect your actual medications. The Plan Finder also displays each plan's Star Rating, which CMS uses to score quality and member experience on a 1–5 scale.

A few things CMS has not yet announced for 2027: the standard Part B premium and deductible, and the IRMAA income brackets that add a surcharge for higher incomes. CMS publishes those figures later in the fall, usually in November. Until then, treat any specific 2027 Part B number you see as a guess, not a fact.

If you do nothing

Nothing dramatic happens on Dec. 8. If your plan is being offered again in 2027, you stay enrolled automatically, with the updates in your ANOC. If your plan is being discontinued, the plan is required to notify you and you get a Special Enrollment Period to pick a new one.

People already on Medicare Advantage get a second window — the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, Jan. 1 – March 31, 2027 — to switch to a different Advantage plan or return to Original Medicare. It is narrower than fall enrollment, so fall is still the better time for a full review.