Medicare Advantage

St. Louis gains 11 new Medicare Advantage plans for 2027: how to vet a first-year option

St. Louis city has 80 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 10 plans are not coming back, 11 are new, and 41 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 17 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for St. Louis, not which plan to pick.

ST. LOUIS — Fall 2026 brings a fresh batch of Medicare Advantage choices to St. Louis city. According to the CMS Landscape Source File for plan year 2027, 11 of the 80 Medicare Advantage plans offered next year in St. Louis city are brand new — meaning they were not sold here in 2026. Five carriers are behind them: Aetna (CVS Health), Devoted Health, HealthSpring, Provider Partners Health Plans and UnitedHealthcare.

If one of these new plans catches your eye during the Annual Enrollment Period (Oct. 15 – Dec. 7, 2026), the vetting work is a little different than it is for a plan that has been around for years. A new plan has no local track record yet — no prior year's Star Rating, no history of how its network held up, no stories from neighbors who tried it. That doesn't make it a bad choice. It just means you have to look at the official documents yourself before Dec. 7.

What new Medicare Advantage plans are available in St. Louis for 2027?

Eleven Medicare Advantage plans are new in St. Louis city for 2027, spread across five carriers. St. Louis is in St. Louis city, and Medicare plan availability is set at the county level, so these are the new plans anyone with a St. Louis city ZIP code can shop.

In alphabetical order by carrier, the new plans are:

• Aetna (CVS Health) — 4 new plans: Aetna Medicare Elite (PPO); Aetna Medicare Enhanced (PPO); Aetna Medicare Full Dual Extra (HMO D-SNP); Aetna Medicare Longevity (HMO I-SNP).
• Devoted Health — 2 new plans: DEVOTED C-SNP GIVEBACK EXTRAS 029 MO (HMO C-SNP); DEVOTED GIVEBACK EXTRAS 028 MO (HMO).
• HealthSpring — 1 new plan: HealthSpring True Choice (PPO).
• Provider Partners Health Plans — 2 new plans: Provider Partners Missouri Community Plan (HMO I-SNP); Provider Partners Missouri Essential Plan (HMO I-SNP).
• UnitedHealthcare — 2 new plans: UHC Dual Advantage MO-V1 (HMO-POS D-SNP); UHC Dual Complete MO-S3 (HMO-POS D-SNP).

The table on this page lists every 2027 plan sold in St. Louis city alongside the new ones, so you can see them in context.

Which of the new St. Louis plans are Special Needs Plans, and which include drug coverage?

Seven of the 11 new St. Louis city plans for 2027 are Special Needs Plans (SNPs), and all 11 include Part D prescription drug coverage.

SNPs are Medicare Advantage plans built around a specific group of people. There are three kinds, and all three show up in this year's new-plan list:

• D-SNP (Dual Eligible) — for people who have both Medicare and Medicaid. The new D-SNPs here are Aetna Medicare Full Dual Extra, UHC Dual Advantage MO-V1 and UHC Dual Complete MO-S3.
• C-SNP (Chronic Condition) — for people with certain long-term conditions. The new C-SNP here is DEVOTED C-SNP GIVEBACK EXTRAS 029 MO.
• I-SNP (Institutional) — generally for people living in a nursing facility or who need that level of care at home. The new I-SNPs here are Aetna Medicare Longevity and the two Provider Partners Missouri plans (Community Plan and Essential Plan).

To join a SNP, you have to qualify for its group. For a D-SNP, that means your Medicaid status; for a C-SNP, a doctor's confirmation of the qualifying condition.

How is a new plan different from one that is renewing?

A new plan starts without a Star Rating or local track record, while a renewing plan carries its history with it. That is the main practical difference for a shopper in St. Louis city.

Medicare's Star Ratings — the 1 to 5 scores on Medicare.gov — are built from past data like member surveys, customer service calls, and how plans manage chronic conditions. A plan in its first year simply hasn't been measured yet, so the Star Ratings page will show it as not rated. That's a program fact, not a warning. It just means you can't lean on a rating; you have to lean on the documents.

A renewing plan, in contrast, publishes an Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) each fall that spells out what is different for next year — premium, copays, covered drugs, network, extras. A new plan doesn't have an ANOC because there is nothing to compare it to. Instead, it has a Summary of Benefits and an Evidence of Coverage for 2027. Those are the documents to read.

For context on the broader market: St. Louis city sees 10 plans not returning for 2027 and 17 renamed, in addition to the 11 new ones. If your current plan was renamed, your coverage didn't disappear — but the details may have shifted, so read your ANOC.

How do I check a new plan against my doctors and prescriptions before Dec. 7?

The fastest way is the Medicare Plan Finder at Medicare.gov, which lets you enter your drugs and preferred pharmacies and see each 2027 plan's formulary and estimated drug costs side by side. For doctors, go a step further and call the office directly.

Here is a simple order of operations for any of the 11 new plans:

1. Start at Medicare.gov/plan-compare. Enter your ZIP code and the exact names and doses of every prescription you take. The tool will show whether each drug is on the plan's 2027 formulary, what tier it is on, and what the plan's pharmacy network looks like. 2. Call your doctor's office. Ask whether they will be in-network for the specific plan name (not just the carrier) for 2027. Networks can differ a lot between a carrier's HMO, HMO-POS and PPO products. 3. Check your preferred pharmacy and any specialists. The same question applies — in-network for 2027 under this specific plan? 4. Read the Summary of Benefits. For a brand-new plan, this is where you'll find the 2027 details on cost-sharing and extras. The plan is required to provide it. 5. If you qualify for a SNP, confirm your eligibility (Medicaid status for a D-SNP, a chronic condition diagnosis for a C-SNP, or your facility status for an I-SNP) before you apply.

You have until Dec. 7, 2026, to make a change for Jan. 1, 2027 coverage. If you do nothing, your current plan renews — assuming it is still being offered — with the changes listed in its ANOC.

What else is changing for Medicare in 2027?

Two Part D numbers are already confirmed for 2027. The Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026), and the Part D maximum deductible rises to $700 (up from $615 in 2026). The Part D national base beneficiary premium for 2027 is $41.33, which is a formula input Medicare uses — not what any specific plan charges.

A few 2027 figures have not been released yet. CMS typically announces the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets, later in the fall. When they are published, they will show up on Medicare.gov and in Social Security notices to beneficiaries.

The three-phase Part D benefit (deductible, initial coverage, catastrophic) remains in place — the old coverage gap, or "donut hole," was eliminated in 2025. The optional Medicare Prescription Payment Plan is also still available, letting you spread your drug out-of-pocket costs across the calendar year in monthly installments.