Medicare Advantage

Does Your ANOC Still Fit? A Durham 2027 Checklist

For 2027, Durham is looking at 69 Medicare Advantage plans: 6 new, 11 gone since 2026, and 25 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 9 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Durham County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

DURHAM, N.C. — Fall 2026. The envelope that lands in Durham mailboxes each September is easy to set aside, but it is the single most useful piece of paper for choosing 2027 Medicare coverage. It is called the Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, and it spells out exactly how your current Medicare Advantage or Part D plan will look different on January 1, 2027. Annual Enrollment runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, and the review below is built around that one document.

What is the ANOC and why does it matter in Durham for 2027?

The Annual Notice of Change is the letter your Medicare Advantage or stand-alone Part D plan sends every fall that lists, side by side, what the plan charges and covers in 2026 and what it will charge and cover in 2027. If you are enrolled in a plan sold in Durham County, you should receive it by late September 2026.

Nothing happens to you if you do nothing — your plan renews with the 2027 changes shown in the ANOC. That is why reading it matters. The premium, the drug tier for one of your medications, the primary care copay, or the specialist network can all shift between plan years, and the ANOC is where those shifts are disclosed first.

What should I check line by line in my ANOC before December 7?

Start with the "summary of changes" table at the front, then work through five specific items with your own life in mind:

1. Monthly premium and deductible for 2027. Compare them to what you pay now. 2. Primary care, specialist, urgent care and hospital cost-sharing. These are the copays you use most. 3. The drug list (formulary). Find each prescription you take and note its 2027 tier. A drug can move tiers, require prior authorization, or come off the list. 4. Pharmacy network. Confirm your pharmacy is still "preferred" or at least "in-network" for 2027. 5. Extra benefits. Dental, vision, hearing, OTC allowances and fitness benefits are often adjusted year to year.

If you take several prescriptions, two 2027 Part D numbers to keep in mind are the $2,400 out-of-pocket cap (up from $2,100 in 2026) and the $700 maximum deductible (up from $615 in 2026).

How do I check that my Durham doctors and hospitals are still in-network for 2027?

Do not rely on memory or the printed directory alone. For each provider — your primary care doctor, any specialists, and the hospital you would want to use — do three things:

• Call the provider's office and ask, by plan name, whether they will accept that plan in 2027.
• Check the plan's online provider search for the 2027 plan year once it is posted (usually by October 15).
• If you use a specific hospital system in the Triangle, confirm the system-wide contract, not just one clinic.

Networks can change on January 1 even when nothing else about the plan changes, so this step is worth the phone calls.

How many Medicare Advantage plans and carriers can Durham residents choose from?

Durham is in Durham County, where CMS's 2026 Landscape Source File lists 74 Medicare Advantage plans from 12 carriers. Of those, 25 are HMOs, 19 are HMO-POS plans and 30 are PPOs; 64 include Part D drug coverage, and 28 are Special Needs Plans for people who qualify (dual-eligible, chronic condition or institutional). The 2027 figures publish on Medicare.gov in October 2026.

The 12 carriers offering Medicare Advantage in Durham County for 2026 are Aetna (CVS Health), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Blue Cross Blue Shield (HCSC), Centene (WellCare), Experience Health, HealthTeam Advantage, Humana, Liberty Medicare Advantage, Longevity Health Plan, PruittHealth Premier, Troy Medicare and UnitedHealthcare. The full plan-by-plan table appears below.

What is the deadline, and what happens if I miss it?

December 7, 2026 is the last day to make an Annual Enrollment choice for coverage that starts January 1, 2027. After that, Medicare Advantage members get one more window — the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, January 1 through March 31, 2027 — to switch to a different Advantage plan or return to Original Medicare. Stand-alone Part D changes generally cannot be made after December 7 unless you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period.

A few 2027 figures are not out yet. CMS publishes the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets, later in the fall (usually November). Watch Medicare.gov for those.

Where should I go for personalized help?

Use the Medicare Plan Finder at Medicare.gov to compare 2027 plans side by side using your own prescription list and preferred pharmacy. Call 1-800-MEDICARE (TTY 1-877-486-2048), available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for one-on-one questions about your situation. For plan-specific questions — a formulary change, a network update, the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan option — call the member services number printed on the back of your plan ID card.