Medicare Advantage

How Broken Arrow Can Change a Medicare Advantage Plan

Tulsa County has 55 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 14 plans are not coming back, 7 are new, and 20 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 5 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for Broken Arrow, not which plan to pick.

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — The calendar just turned, and for people on a Medicare Advantage plan, that means a second chance is now open. From January 1 through March 31, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (MA OEP) gives current Advantage members a limited window to correct a choice made during fall enrollment. Miss it, and most people are locked in until October.

Here is what Tulsa County residents in Broken Arrow can — and cannot — do during this window, and how it fits with the other Medicare dates on the 2027 calendar.

What the January–March window actually is

The MA OEP is a narrow, targeted window. It is not a do-over for everyone on Medicare. It exists so that a person who signed up for an Advantage plan — either during fall enrollment or when they first became eligible — can make one course correction after seeing how the plan actually works in January.

According to CMS (medicare.gov), during the MA OEP you may:

• Switch from your current Medicare Advantage plan to a different Medicare Advantage plan.
• Drop your Medicare Advantage plan and go back to Original Medicare (Parts A and B). If you do, you can also join a stand-alone Medicare Part D drug plan.

You may make one such change, and it takes effect the first day of the month after the plan gets your request.

What you cannot do between January and March

The MA OEP is not a general shopping period. During this window you cannot:

• Switch from Original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan if you were not already in one on January 1.
• Join a stand-alone Part D drug plan if you are staying on Original Medicare and did not already have drug coverage.
• Switch from one stand-alone Part D plan to another while remaining on Original Medicare.

Those moves generally had to happen during the Annual Enrollment Period (October 15 – December 7), which ended just before this window opened.

How the dates fit together in 2027

It helps to see the full Medicare year at a glance:

• October 15 – December 7 (each year): Annual Enrollment Period. Open to everyone with Medicare. Changes take effect January 1.
• January 1 – March 31: Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment. Only for people already in an Advantage plan. One change allowed.
• Special Enrollment Periods (year-round): Triggered by life events such as moving out of your plan’s service area, losing other coverage, or moving into or out of a nursing facility.

Broken Arrow is in Tulsa County, where a range of Medicare Advantage and Part D plans are offered — the exact count changes each year as carriers file with CMS. Availability is set at the county level, so two neighbors on opposite sides of the Wagoner County line may see different options.

What is new for 2027 that could change your mind

Even if your Advantage plan looks the same on paper, the prescription drug rules underneath it have shifted meaningfully:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 for 2026. Once your covered drug spending reaches that amount, you pay $0 for covered Part D drugs the rest of the year.
• The Part D maximum deductible is $615.
• The old coverage gap, or “donut hole,” was eliminated in 2025. Part D now has three phases instead of four.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread your drug out-of-pocket costs across the calendar year in monthly bills instead of paying at the pharmacy counter. It is optional and free to join.
• IRMAA — the income-related surcharge on Part B and Part D — begins above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.

If January’s pharmacy trip or a new doctor’s network surprised you, those are the kinds of things the MA OEP was designed to let you fix.

If you miss March 31

For most people, missing March 31 means waiting until the next Annual Enrollment Period (starting October 15, 2027) to make changes, with January 1, 2028 coverage. The exceptions are Special Enrollment Periods — for example, if you move outside your plan's service area, lose employer coverage, or qualify for Extra Help. If you think a life event may qualify you, do not guess. Call 1-800-MEDICARE or Oklahoma's SHIP (called Senior Health Insurance Counseling Program, run through the Oklahoma Insurance Department) for a free, unbiased review.

How to make a smart, calm decision

A few practical steps before March 31:

1. Pull out your plan’s Evidence of Coverage and current formulary. 2. List the doctors, hospitals and pharmacies you actually used in the last 12 months. 3. Write down every prescription, including dose and frequency. 4. Use the Plan Finder at medicare.gov to compare options in Tulsa County side by side. 5. If anything is unclear, talk to a licensed advisor or your local SHIP counselor before you submit a change.