Medicare Advantage

Your Albuquerque Medicare checklist for 2027: what to read, check and decide by Dec. 7

People in Albuquerque can choose from 36 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 51 this year. 24 of this year’s plans are gone, 9 are new to Bernalillo County, and 22 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 9 of them under a new name.

ALBUQUERQUE — Fall 2026. If you have a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan, the envelope that landed in your mailbox in late September is the single most important piece of paper this season. It's your Annual Notice of Change, and it spells out exactly how your plan will be different on January 1, 2027. You have until December 7, 2026 to decide whether to keep it, switch it, or move between Medicare Advantage and Original Medicare.

Here is a plain-language checklist built for people in Albuquerque and the rest of Bernalillo County — what to read, what to compare, and where to get real answers.

Step 1: Open the ANOC before anything else

Every Medicare Advantage and standalone Part D plan has to mail (or email) an Annual Notice of Change by the end of September. It is usually a short booklet, and it compares your 2026 plan to the same plan in 2027 — premium, deductible, primary care and specialist copays, drug tiers, extra benefits like dental or hearing, and the maximum out-of-pocket limit.

If something you use often moved into a higher cost tier, or a benefit you rely on shrank, that is your signal to shop. If nothing meaningful changed, you may be fine to let the plan renew on its own.

Keep the Evidence of Coverage too — it is the longer document that spells out every rule.

Step 2: Check your doctors and hospitals for 2027

Networks change every year. Before December 7, do three quick checks:

1. Call your primary care doctor's office and ask which 2027 Medicare Advantage plans they will be in-network for. Ask about the specialists you see too. 2. Do the same for the hospital system you prefer — Presbyterian, UNM Health, Lovelace or another Albuquerque facility — because a plan can include a doctor but not the hospital where that doctor admits patients. 3. If you travel or spend part of the year outside New Mexico, ask about out-of-area coverage. HMO, HMO-POS and PPO plans handle this very differently.

Do not rely only on the online directory. A quick phone call to the office confirms what the directory sometimes gets wrong.

Step 3: Run your prescriptions through the Plan Finder

The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov lets you type in every drug you take, your pharmacy, and your ZIP code. It will show you what each 2027 plan would charge for your specific list — this is the only honest way to compare drug costs, because tiers and preferred pharmacies vary so much.

A few 2027 numbers worth knowing as you look:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,400 in 2027 (up from $2,100 in 2026).
• The Part D maximum deductible is $700 in 2027 (up from $615 in 2026).
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan is still available — it lets you spread your drug costs across the calendar year in monthly bills instead of paying at the pharmacy counter.

CMS has not yet announced the 2027 Part B standard premium, Part B deductible or the IRMAA income brackets; those usually publish in November. Watch medicare.gov for the official figures.

Step 4: Know what you can choose from in Bernalillo County

Albuquerque is in Bernalillo County, where 51 Medicare Advantage plans from 8 carriers are offered for 2026. The 2026 mix includes 24 HMO plans, 1 HMO-POS and 26 PPOs, and 17 of those are Special Needs Plans (for people with certain chronic conditions, who are also on Medicaid, or who live in an institution). Every plan in the county for 2026 includes drug coverage.

The eight carriers are Blue Cross Blue Shield (HCSC), CHRISTUS Health Advantage, Devoted Health, Humana, Molina Healthcare of Arizona, Presbyterian Health Plan, SCAN Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare. Humana has the longest menu (14 plans), followed by Blue Cross (11) and UnitedHealthcare (10). The table below lists every plan sold in the county so you can see the full field.

Having a lot of choices is helpful, but it also means it is worth narrowing by your own doctors, hospital and drug list before you start comparing.

Step 5: Decide — and mark your calendar for Dec. 7

Once you know your ANOC, your providers' 2027 networks and what your drugs will cost, you have three paths:

• Do nothing. Your current plan renews on January 1, 2027, with the changes shown in your ANOC — as long as the plan is still being offered.
• Switch Medicare Advantage or Part D plans. You can do this between October 15 and December 7, 2026. The new plan takes effect January 1, 2027.
• Move between Medicare Advantage and Original Medicare. You can do that in this window too. If you go back to Original Medicare and want a Medigap policy, be aware that outside your initial enrollment, insurers in New Mexico can usually ask health questions — so look into that before you drop a plan.

If you miss Dec. 7, there is one more window for people already in Medicare Advantage: the MA Open Enrollment Period runs January 1 – March 31, 2027, and lets you make one change.

Where to get real answers

• medicare.gov — the Plan Finder, your personal account, and official rules for 2027.
• 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) — 24/7, free, and they can look up your specific situation.
• Your plan's member services line — the number is on your member ID card; ask them to walk you through the ANOC.