Medicare Advantage

Cuyahoga County has 16 carriers for 2027: a checklist

People in Cleveland can choose from 99 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 112 this year. 31 of this year’s plans are gone, 18 are new to Cuyahoga County, and 37 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 6 of them under a new name.

CLEVELAND — The window to change Medicare coverage for 2027 is open now and closes Sunday, Dec. 7, 2026. If you live in or near Cleveland, that is the stretch to pull out your Annual Notice of Change, log in to the Medicare Plan Finder, and work through your options the same way every year — doctors, hospitals, prescriptions, pharmacies — before your current plan quietly rolls into next year.

Cleveland is in Cuyahoga County, where the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) counts 99 Medicare Advantage plans from 16 carriers for 2027. Of those, 18 are new to the county for 2027 and 31 plans offered this year are not returning. That mix is why it is worth comparing on purpose rather than by default.

How many Medicare Advantage plans are offered in Cuyahoga County for 2027?

Cuyahoga County has 99 Medicare Advantage plans from 16 carriers for 2027, according to the CMS Landscape Source File. By plan type, that breaks down to 44 HMO plans, 20 HMO-POS plans and 35 PPO plans, and all 99 include prescription drug coverage.

The 16 carriers serving the county for 2027 are Aetna (CVS Health), CareSource MyCare Ohio, Centene (WellCare), Communicare Advantage, Devoted Health, Elevance Health (Anthem), HealthSpring, Humana, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Molina Healthcare of Ohio, Perennial Advantage, SummaCare Medicare Advantage Plans, The Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare, Valor Health Plan and Zing Health. The table below lists every plan each carrier is offering in the county.

What Special Needs Plans are available in Cleveland for 2027?

Cuyahoga County has 33 Special Needs Plans (SNPs) available for 2027: 11 Dual-Eligible SNPs (D-SNPs) for people with both Medicare and Medicaid, 13 Chronic Condition SNPs (C-SNPs) built around conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or end-stage renal disease, and 9 Institutional SNPs (I-SNPs) for people living in a nursing home or needing that level of care.

SNPs are a type of Medicare Advantage plan with a narrower audience and tailored benefits. If one applies to you, confirm you meet the eligibility rules before you enroll — the plan will verify, and the wrong fit will not pay the way you expect.

What is new in Cleveland's Medicare Advantage lineup for 2027?

For 2027, Cuyahoga County has 18 new plans entering, 31 plans not returning and 6 plans renamed from their 2026 versions. The carrier count stayed at 16, but the overall plan count dropped from 112 in 2026 to 99 in 2027.

If your plan is one of the 31 not returning, your carrier is required to send you a non-renewal notice; you will have a Special Enrollment Period to pick something new, and if you do nothing you will drop back to Original Medicare on Jan. 1. If your plan is renamed, your coverage continues — but the Annual Notice of Change is the only reliable place to see what moved.

How do I compare 2027 Medicare Advantage plans step by step?

Start with the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) your plan mailed in September, then verify the rest on Medicare.gov. Here is the order most Medicare counselors use:

1. Read the ANOC. It lists every change for 2027 side-by-side with 2026 — premium, deductible, copays, drug tier changes, pharmacy network changes, extra benefits. If nothing in it bothers you, you may be done. 2. List your doctors and hospitals. Write down every provider you want to keep, including the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals or MetroHealth facilities you use. Networks change on Jan. 1; a plan that worked in 2026 is not guaranteed to include the same providers in 2027. 3. List your prescriptions. Note each drug, the exact dose and how often you fill it. Tier placement and prior-authorization rules reset each year. 4. Open the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov. Enter your ZIP code, add your drugs and your preferred pharmacy, and the tool will show you the plans available in Cuyahoga County with your personal cost estimate for each. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE, 24 hours a day. 5. Check pharmacies. Preferred vs. standard pharmacy status changes what you pay. Confirm your pharmacy — chain or independent, mail-order if you use it — is in the plan's preferred tier. 6. Confirm the doctors inside the plan, not just on the plan's website. Call the office and ask whether they are contracted with the specific plan name and ID for 2027. "We take Humana" or "we take Aetna" is not specific enough. 7. If you take expensive drugs, check the new Part D numbers. For 2027, CMS has confirmed the Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026) and the Part D maximum deductible is $700 (up from $615 in 2026). The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan still lets you spread drug costs across the year in monthly installments if you want to.

What happens if I do nothing before Dec. 7, 2026?

If you do nothing and your current Medicare Advantage plan is offered again in 2027, you stay in it — with the premium, cost-sharing, network and drug-list changes spelled out in your Annual Notice of Change. No action means consent to those changes.

If your plan is not returning for 2027, you cannot stay — you'll either pick another Medicare Advantage plan or default to Original Medicare, and you'll have a Special Enrollment Period that runs into early 2027 to make a Part D or Medigap decision. Either way, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from Jan. 1 – March 31, 2027 gives you one more chance to switch Medicare Advantage plans or go back to Original Medicare if your January choice is not working.

One more figure worth knowing: the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets, have not been announced yet. CMS typically publishes them later in the fall, usually in November. Watch medicare.gov for the official numbers rather than relying on projections.