Medicare Advantage

Before you renew in Las Vegas: a plan-by-plan checklist for 2027 Medicare Advantage

For 2027, Las Vegas is looking at 72 Medicare Advantage plans: 9 new, 11 gone since 2026, and 33 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 15 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Clark County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

LAS VEGAS — Fall 2026 is the one stretch of the year when almost every Medicare Advantage shopper in Clark County is on the same clock. The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, and any change you make takes effect January 1, 2027. If you do nothing, your current plan rolls over into next year — with whatever changes its Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) spells out.

For 2027, Clark County residents will choose from 72 Medicare Advantage plans offered by 10 carriers, according to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source File. That includes 9 plans that are new for 2027 and 11 plans that are not returning. The lineup is a little tighter than this year's, but still large — so the question is less "what's out there" and more "how do I compare them without getting lost?"

Here is a plain, step-by-step way to do that before December 7.

What Las Vegas's 2027 lineup looks like

Medicare Advantage availability is set by county, so when we say "Las Vegas plans," we mean plans offered in Clark County. For plan year 2027, the county's menu breaks down like this:

• By type: 37 HMO, 18 HMO-POS, and 17 PPO plans
• Special Needs Plans (SNPs): 16 for people with both Medicare and Medicaid (D-SNP), 16 for people with certain chronic conditions (C-SNP), and 1 for people living in an institution (I-SNP)
• Drug coverage: all 72 plans include Part D

Every carrier returning for 2027 is listed in the table below with its plan count. In alphabetical order, Clark County's 2027 carriers are Aetna (CVS Health), Alignment Health Plan, Centene (WellCare), Champion Health Plan, Elevance Health (Anthem), HealthSpring, Humana, SCAN Health Plan, Select Health, and UnitedHealthcare.

A few shifts worth noting: the county has two fewer carriers than in 2026, and the mix moves slightly toward PPOs and away from HMO-POS plans. The ANOC your plan sent you is where you'll see whether your specific plan is one of the 11 not returning, one of the 15 that were renamed, or simply renewing with changes.

Step 1: Read your Annual Notice of Change first

Before you look at any new plan, open the envelope (or email) from your current one. The ANOC lists, side by side, what is changing from 2026 to 2027: the monthly premium, the deductible, the drug list (formulary), the pharmacy network, the provider network, and extra benefits like dental or over-the-counter allowances.

If nothing in the ANOC bothers you, you may not need to switch at all. If something does — a drug moved to a higher tier, your doctor left the network, a benefit shrank — that becomes your checklist for comparing other plans.

Step 2: List your doctors, hospitals and drugs

A good comparison starts with your life, not the plan brochure. Write down:

• The doctors and specialists you want to keep seeing
• The hospitals or surgery centers you prefer (in Las Vegas, that often means a specific health system)
• Every prescription you take, with the exact dose and how often
• The pharmacies you actually use, including mail order if you use it

This list is what you'll plug into the Medicare Plan Finder in the next step. Without it, you're just comparing marketing.

Step 3: Use the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov

The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov/plan-compare is the one tool that pulls together every plan available in your ZIP code with the official 2027 figures. Create or sign in to your account so it remembers your drug list.

Enter your prescriptions and your pharmacies, then let the tool show your Clark County options. You can filter by plan type (HMO, HMO-POS, PPO), by whether it's a Special Needs Plan, and by carrier. For each plan you're considering, click in to see:

• Monthly premium and annual drug deductible
• Estimated yearly cost based on your drugs
• Copays for primary care, specialists, and hospital stays
• Whether each of your drugs is covered and on which tier
• The plan's star rating (a quality score, not a ranking of "best")

Step 4: Check the provider and pharmacy networks yourself

The Plan Finder shows cost and drug coverage well, but for networks, go straight to the plan's own online directory — or call the plan and ask. Search for each doctor by name, confirm the hospital you'd use is in-network, and check that your pharmacy is a "preferred" pharmacy rather than just "in-network," since the cost difference can be real.

HMO plans generally require you to stay in-network except for emergencies. PPO plans let you go out-of-network at a higher cost. HMO-POS plans sit in between, allowing some out-of-network care for specific services.

Step 5: Know the 2027 Part D numbers that apply to every plan

Two drug-coverage figures are set by Medicare, not by the plan:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,400 in 2027 (up from $2,100 in 2026). Once your out-of-pocket spending on covered drugs hits that, you pay $0 for the rest of the year.
• The maximum Part D deductible is $700 in 2027 (up from $615 in 2026). Plans can set a lower deductible, but not higher.

The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan is also still available — it lets you spread your drug costs across the year in monthly payments instead of paying at the pharmacy counter.

CMS has not yet announced the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible or the 2027 IRMAA income brackets. Those usually come out in November; check medicare.gov for the official figures before you finalize your choice.

Step 6: If you qualify, look at Special Needs Plans

Clark County will have 33 Special Needs Plans in 2027: 16 D-SNPs for people with Medicare and Medicaid, 16 C-SNPs for people with chronic conditions like diabetes, heart failure or kidney disease, and 1 I-SNP. These plans tailor their networks, drug lists and extra benefits to a specific group, so if you qualify, they're worth comparing alongside general plans.

You can only enroll in an SNP if you meet its eligibility rules, and the plan will verify this.