Medicare Advantage

St. Louis Medicare: your 2027 ANOC checklist to finish before Dec. 7

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. The purple envelope sitting on kitchen tables across St. Louis right now is not junk mail. It is your Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, and it is the single most useful document you will read before Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period closes on December 7, 2026. Any change you make during the window — October 15 through December 7 — takes effect January 1, 2027.

If you do nothing, your current plan simply renews for 2027 with whatever changes the ANOC describes. That is fine, as long as you have actually read the ANOC and the new plan still fits your doctors, your hospitals and your prescriptions.

Here is a plain checklist for working through it.

What is the ANOC and why does it matter for 2027 coverage in St. Louis?

The Annual Notice of Change is the letter your Medicare Advantage or Part D plan sends every fall explaining what will be different next year. For St. Louis residents, the 2027 ANOCs arrived in late September. It covers your premium, deductible, copays, drug tiers, provider network, pharmacy network and extra benefits like dental, vision, hearing or over-the-counter allowances.

Read it side-by-side with your 2026 plan documents. If something important to you is changing — a specialist leaving the network, a medication moving to a higher tier, a benefit shrinking — that is your cue to compare.

How do I check my doctors and hospitals against the 2027 plan?

Do not assume your current providers will still be in-network next year. Networks are set plan by plan and can change on January 1.

Call each doctor's office and your preferred hospital directly and ask: "Will you be in-network for [plan name] in 2027?" Then verify on the plan's 2027 online provider directory. For St. Louis-area readers, that includes checking whether BJC HealthCare, SSM Health, Mercy or St. Luke's facilities you use are listed. If a provider is leaving the network, the plan is required to tell you — but confirming yourself is faster and safer than waiting for a letter.

How do I check my prescriptions for 2027?

Pull out your current medication list and look up each drug on the plan's 2027 formulary — not the 2026 version. Three things can change: whether the drug is covered at all, what tier it sits on, and whether it now requires prior authorization or step therapy.

The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov/plan-compare lets you enter your drugs and preferred pharmacy and see 2027 estimated costs across every plan available in your ZIP code. For 2027, Part D has a $2,400 out-of-pocket cap (up from $2,100 in 2026) and a maximum deductible of $700 (up from $615 in 2026). The optional Medicare Prescription Payment Plan is still available if you want to spread drug costs across the year.

How many Medicare Advantage plans are offered in St. Louis for 2027?

St. Louis is in St. Louis city, where 79 Medicare Advantage plans from 11 carriers are available for the 2027 plan year, according to the CMS Landscape Source File. That breaks down as 31 HMO plans, 20 HMO-POS, 27 PPO and 1 PFFS; 34 are Special Needs Plans and 72 include drug coverage.

The 11 carriers serving St. Louis city for 2027 are Aetna (CVS Health), American Health Advantage of Missouri, Blue Cross Blue Shield (HCSC), Centene (WellCare), Devoted Health, Elevance Health (Anthem), Essence Healthcare, Humana, NHC Advantage, Provider Partners Health Plans and UnitedHealthcare. The table below lists every plan by carrier.

If you qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid, or you have a condition like diabetes or chronic heart failure, the 34 Special Needs Plans in the county are worth a closer look.

What should I do if the Part B and IRMAA figures for 2027 are not out yet?

CMS has not yet announced the 2027 Part B standard premium, the Part B deductible, or the 2027 IRMAA income brackets and surcharges. Those are published later in the fall — usually in November. For reference, IRMAA in 2026 begins above $109,000 in income for a single filer.

You do not need to wait for those figures to make a Medicare Advantage or Part D decision. The ANOC and the 2027 plan documents already contain what you need for that choice.

What is the deadline and what happens if I do nothing?

December 7, 2026 is the last day to switch Medicare Advantage or Part D plans for coverage starting January 1, 2027. If you do nothing, your current plan renews with the changes in your ANOC. If you are on Medicare Advantage and change your mind after January 1, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from January 1 through March 31, 2027 lets you switch to another MA plan or go back to Original Medicare once.