Medicare Advantage

Medicare Star Ratings: fall updates for Spring, Texas readers

For 2027, Spring is looking at 99 Medicare Advantage plans: 22 new, 37 gone since 2026, and 44 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 17 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Harris County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

SPRING, Texas — Each fall, just before Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period opens, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes updated Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage and Part D drug plans. The 2027 ratings became available on Medicare's Plan Finder ahead of the October 15 enrollment window, and they're one of the few plan-quality signals the federal government makes public.

Star Ratings for 2027 are out — here's what they actually measure

But the ratings are widely misread. They aren't a ranking, they aren't a shopping list, and a five-star plan isn't automatically the right fit for any one person. Here's what the numbers do — and don't — tell you.

What the stars actually measure

CMS rates Medicare Advantage and Part D plans on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with 5 being the highest. The score is built from dozens of individual measures grouped into broad categories, including:

• How members rate the plan (customer service, complaints, ease of getting appointments and care).
• Preventive care and chronic condition management (things like screenings, vaccines, and follow-up after a hospital stay).
• Drug plan performance (accuracy of pricing information, safe prescribing, medication adherence).
• Member experience with the drug plan (customer service, appeals handling).

Medicare Advantage plans that also include drug coverage get one overall rating that blends the health and drug measures. Standalone Part D drug plans get their own separate rating.

The point is quality and member experience — not price, not network size, not which doctors are in.

Why the ratings are published in the fall

The timing isn't a coincidence. CMS releases the new Star Ratings in early October so that people can consider them during the Annual Enrollment Period, October 15 through December 7, when most Medicare beneficiaries can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan for the coming year.

Ratings can shift from year to year. A plan that earned 4 stars last fall might come in at 3.5 or 4.5 this fall, based on updated performance data. That's one reason CMS encourages people to review coverage annually rather than assume last year's choice still fits.

What Star Ratings do not do

This is where readers get tripped up:

• They don't rank plans against each other. A star score is a quality measure, not a leaderboard.
• They don't tell you what a plan costs. Premiums, deductibles, and copays are separate.
• They don't tell you if your doctor or hospital is in-network. You have to check that directly.
• They don't measure whether the plan covers the specific drugs you take. Formularies vary plan by plan.

In other words, a high rating means a plan performed well on CMS's quality measures. It doesn't mean the plan will work well for your medications, your doctors, or your budget.

Local context for Spring readers

Spring is in Harris County, where Medicare beneficiaries typically have a wide range of Medicare Advantage and Part D options during Annual Enrollment. Plan availability, networks, and formularies are set at the county level, so two neighbors on opposite sides of the Harris County line could see different choices on Medicare's Plan Finder.

When you look up plans at medicare.gov/plan-compare, the Star Rating appears next to each option — but so do the premium, the drug list, and the pharmacy network. Use all of that information together.

A few program facts worth knowing for 2027

Whichever plan someone lands on, some rules are set by Medicare itself and apply across the board:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027. Once a beneficiary hits that limit on covered drugs, they pay nothing more for covered drugs for the rest of the calendar year.
• The Part D deductible maximum is $615 for 2026 and $700 for 2027 (individual plans may set it lower).
• The coverage gap ("donut hole") is gone as of 2025 — Part D now has three phases instead of four.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets people spread drug costs over monthly payments instead of paying large amounts at the pharmacy counter.
• IRMAA — the income-related surcharge on Part B and Part D premiums — begins above $109,000 in modified adjusted gross income for a single filer in 2026.