Medicare Advantage

Before You Compare Plans in O'Fallon, Here's What a Star Really Tells You

In O'Fallon, Missouri, Medicare's 2027 Star Ratings are posted on Medicare.gov ahead of the Annual Enrollment Period that runs October 15 through December 7, 2026. The ratings are refreshed each fall by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and they are meant to help you judge quality — not to tell you which plan to pick.

What Star Ratings actually measure

CMS scores Medicare Advantage plans on up to about 40 quality measures and stand-alone Part D drug plans on roughly a dozen. The measures fall into a few plain-English buckets: how well the plan helps members stay healthy (screenings, checkups, vaccines), how it manages chronic conditions, member experience, complaints and problems getting care, customer service, and — for drug coverage — pricing accuracy and safe prescribing.

Each measure earns 1 to 5 stars. CMS then rolls those up into an overall Star Rating for the plan. A 5-star plan is considered excellent; a 3-star plan is average. Ratings are not a review of any specific benefit or premium — they are a snapshot of how the plan performed.

When and how ratings are published

CMS releases the new Star Ratings each October, right before the Annual Enrollment Period opens on October 15. That timing is deliberate: it gives shoppers a fresh quality signal to look at during the fall window and again during Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment, January 1 through March 31.

You can see the current stars on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder next to each plan available in your ZIP code. The ratings there are always the most up-to-date official version.

What Star Ratings do not tell you

Stars do not tell you whether your doctors are in a plan's network. They do not tell you whether your prescriptions are on the plan's formulary, or what tier they sit on. They do not reflect your personal costs, and they do not measure how a plan will perform for your specific health needs in 2027.

That is why CMS and State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs) treat the rating as one factor among several, not a scoreboard.

The O'Fallon, Missouri snapshot

O'Fallon sits in St. Charles County, and Medicare Advantage and Part D availability is set at the county level. That means every O'Fallon resident sees the same list of plans and the same Star Ratings on Plan Finder as their neighbors elsewhere in St. Charles County. If you move across a county line — say to St. Louis County — the plan list, and sometimes the ratings on those plans, can change.

For personalized help in the O'Fallon area, Missouri's SHIP is called CLAIM (Community Leaders Assisting the Insured of Missouri). Counselors are trained, unbiased, and free.

How to use stars during the fall 2026 shopping season

A few plain-language tips:

• Start with your must-haves: your prescriptions, your doctors, and any hospital you want to keep.
• Then look at the Star Rating as a general quality check — not as a ranking.
• Remember the Part D program-level rules: the out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027, and the maximum deductible is $615 in 2026 and $700 in 2027. The old coverage gap is gone. Anyone struggling with cash flow on drug costs can ask about the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which spreads payments across the year.
• If your income is above $109,000 as a single filer, factor in IRMAA surcharges on Part B and Part D.