Medicare Advantage

Did Your Omaha ANOC Just Arrive? Read It This Way

For 2027, Omaha is looking at 39 Medicare Advantage plans: 11 new, 17 gone since 2026, and 12 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 5 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Douglas County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

OMAHA — The envelope that lands in your mailbox each September is easy to set aside, but it is the single most useful piece of paper in Medicare's fall season. It is called the Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, and it tells you exactly how your current Medicare plan will be different in 2027. If something in it does not work for you, the Annual Enrollment Period that runs now through December 7, 2026 is your window to switch.

Doing nothing is a choice too. If your plan is offered next year, it renews automatically on January 1, 2027, with the changes the ANOC describes.

Start with the ANOC — it is doing the work for you

Your plan is required to mail the Annual Notice of Change by the end of September. It is a short document that compares what you have now with what you will have in 2027. Read these lines first:

• Monthly premium, deductible and the maximum you would pay out of pocket.
• Primary care, specialist and emergency room copays.
• Any change to extra benefits like dental, vision, hearing, over-the-counter items or a flex card.
• Drug tiers, the pharmacy network, and any mail-order rules.
• Whether the plan itself is being discontinued or renamed in your area.

If nothing has changed that matters to you, you may be done. If something has, keep going.

Check your doctors and hospitals for 2027

A plan can add or drop providers from its network at the start of a new year. Before Annual Enrollment ends, open the 2027 provider directory on your plan's website (or call the number on your member card) and confirm each of these is still in-network:

• Your primary care doctor.
• Any specialists you see regularly.
• Your preferred hospital system in the Omaha metro.
• Imaging centers, physical therapy, and any home health or dialysis providers you use.

If you are considering a different plan, run the same checks on that plan's 2027 directory. Networks differ between an HMO, HMO-POS and PPO, so the plan type matters as much as the name.

Price out your prescriptions against the 2027 formulary

Every Medicare drug plan publishes a formulary — the list of covered drugs and the tier each one sits on. Tiers can shift from one year to the next, and so can prior-authorization or step-therapy rules.

The easiest way to compare is the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov. Enter your drugs, doses and pharmacy, and it will show your estimated full-year cost under each 2027 plan in Douglas County, including mail-order where offered.

Two Part D numbers worth knowing for next year, both set by CMS:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 in 2027, up from $2,100 in 2026. Once you hit it, covered drugs cost you nothing more that year.
• The Part D maximum deductible is $700 in 2027, up from $615 in 2026. Plans can set a lower deductible, or none.

If paying for expensive medications in January is a problem, ask about the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which spreads your drug costs across the year in level monthly amounts.

Know what's on the shelf in Douglas County

Omaha is in Douglas County, and that is the geography CMS uses when it decides which plans you can enroll in. For 2026, the county has 45 Medicare Advantage plans from 9 carriers: Aetna (CVS Health), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, Centene (WellCare), Devoted Health, Great Plains Medicare Advantage, Humana, Medica, Molina Healthcare of Illinois and UnitedHealthcare. Of those plans, 16 are Special Needs Plans for people who qualify (for example, by having both Medicare and Medicaid), and all 45 include drug coverage.

The 2027 lineup — including any new plans and any that are leaving — appears on the Medicare Plan Finder when the Annual Enrollment Period opens on October 15, 2026. The table below lists every plan currently available.

A few 2027 figures are still pending

CMS has not yet announced the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and it has not yet published the 2027 IRMAA income brackets that apply to higher earners. Both are typically released in the fall, usually in November. When they come out, your Social Security "COLA" notice in December will show your own Part B amount for next year.

Mark the calendar

• October 15, 2026: Annual Enrollment opens; 2027 plan details go live on medicare.gov.
• December 7, 2026: Last day to join, switch or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan for January 1 coverage.
• January 1, 2027: New coverage begins.
• January 1 – March 31, 2027: Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment, when someone already in an MA plan can make one change.