Medicare Advantage

Before You Compare Plans in Coos Bay, Decode the Stars

Coos Bay, Ore. — Every October, a small cluster of gold stars starts showing up next to Medicare plans on Medicare.gov. With the Annual Enrollment Period running Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, those Star Ratings are one of the first things Coos Bay shoppers will see — and one of the most misunderstood. Here's what the ratings actually measure, when the 2027 ratings post, and how to read them without letting them make your decision for you.

What Star Ratings actually are

Star Ratings are quality scores that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) assigns to Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans. Plans are rated on a scale from 1 star (poor) to 5 stars (excellent), with half-star increments in between.

The ratings are built from dozens of individual measures — things like how well plans help members manage chronic conditions, how quickly customer service answers the phone, how often members get recommended screenings, and how many complaints CMS receives. Those individual measures roll up into category scores, and the category scores roll up into the overall star score you see on Medicare.gov.

Importantly, this is a quality measurement — not a ranking of which plan is "best" for you.

When the 2027 ratings are published

CMS releases updated Star Ratings each fall, typically in early to mid-October, so the new scores are visible when the Annual Enrollment Period opens on Oct. 15. The ratings you see during AEP reflect plan performance data CMS collected in prior measurement years.

That timing is deliberate: it gives Coos Bay residents about eight weeks — from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7 — to look at current ratings alongside plan documents before making a choice for the following year.

What the stars do — and don't — tell you

A 4-star plan isn't automatically the right plan for you, and a 3-star plan isn't automatically wrong. Star Ratings tell you how a plan performed across a broad group of members. They do not tell you:

• Whether your specific doctors and hospitals are in the network.
• Whether your specific prescriptions are on the formulary.
• What your monthly premium or share of costs would be.
• Whether the plan covers extras that matter to you.

Two people in the same Coos Bay neighborhood can look at the same 4-star plan and reach different conclusions, and both can be right. Use the stars as one input, not the whole decision.

How to use ratings during AEP in Coos County

Coos Bay is in Coos County, where Medicare plan availability is set at the county level. When you use the Plan Finder at Medicare.gov, you'll enter your ZIP code, and every plan available in Coos County will display its overall star score right on the results page.

A practical way to use the ratings:

1. Start with your must-haves — your doctors, your medications, and how much predictability you want in monthly costs. 2. Filter and sort on Medicare.gov to see the plans that meet those needs. 3. Then look at star scores as a tiebreaker or a flag to dig deeper into a plan's summary of benefits.

Remember the program-level rules that apply no matter which plan you pick: the Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027, the Part D maximum deductible is $615 in 2026 and $700 in 2027, and the coverage gap ("donut hole") is gone. If drug costs are a worry, the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread your out-of-pocket drug costs across the plan year.

If you miss the fall window

The Annual Enrollment Period ends Dec. 7. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan and want to switch after that, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period runs Jan. 1 through March 31 and gives you one more chance to change Advantage plans or return to Original Medicare.