Medicare Advantage

Puyallup Medicare check-up: what your ANOC should tell you before Dec. 7

For 2027, Puyallup is looking at 66 Medicare Advantage plans: 19 new, 26 gone since 2026, and 38 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 13 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Pierce County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

PUYALLUP, Wash. — The envelope that landed in your mailbox in late September is doing more work than it looks like. That's your Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, and it spells out how your Medicare Advantage or Part D plan will be different in 2027. Between now and December 7, 2026, you have time to read it, compare it to what else is offered in Pierce County, and either stay put or switch. Any change you make takes effect January 1, 2027.

If you do nothing, your current plan renews with the changes the ANOC describes — assuming it is offered next year. That is why the ANOC is the single most important piece of Medicare mail you will get this fall.

Start with the ANOC — and read it with a highlighter

The ANOC is a short document (usually a booklet or PDF) that compares your plan's 2026 rules to its 2027 rules, side by side. Focus on these lines:

• Monthly premium for 2027.
• Medical deductible and primary care, specialist and ER copays.
• Maximum out-of-pocket for the year.
• Drug tiers and the drug deductible — a medication can move from a lower tier to a higher one, or drop off the formulary entirely.
• Extra benefits (dental, vision, hearing, OTC, fitness) — allowances and rules change often year to year.
• Any note that the plan is not being offered in 2027. If you see that, you'll need to pick a new plan or you'll drop back to Original Medicare.

If your ANOC didn't arrive by the end of September, call the number on your member ID card and ask for it, or download it from your plan's member portal.

Check your doctors and hospitals for 2027

Networks are set year by year. A clinic that took your plan in 2026 may not be in-network in 2027, and vice versa. In the Puyallup area, that most often means confirming coverage at MultiCare Good Samaritan, CHI Franciscan/Virginia Mason Franciscan Health locations, and any specialists you see regularly.

Two quick checks:

1. Call each provider's billing office and ask, by plan name, whether they will be in-network for 2027. 2. Cross-check with the plan's online provider directory for January 1, 2027 — not today's directory.

If you use an HMO or HMO-POS plan, out-of-network care is generally not covered except for emergencies, so the network match matters more. PPOs give you some out-of-network flexibility but usually at a higher cost.

Run your prescriptions through the 2027 formulary

Two Part D figures are already confirmed for 2027:

• Part D out-of-pocket cap: $2,400 in 2027 (up from $2,100 in 2026).
• Part D maximum deductible: $700 in 2027 (up from $615 in 2026).

Those are program-wide ceilings; individual plans can set lower deductibles, and drug tiers still drive what you actually pay. Use the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov to type in each medication and see estimated annual drug costs under any plan sold in your ZIP code. Also confirm your preferred pharmacy — Puyallup has plenty of choices, but "preferred" versus "standard" pharmacy status can change the copay.

If drug costs hit hard in any one month, the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread out-of-pocket drug costs across the calendar year at no extra charge. You opt in through the plan.

Know what's available in Pierce County

Puyallup is in Pierce County, where 73 Medicare Advantage plans from 12 carriers are on the 2026 landscape — 26 HMO, 15 HMO-POS and 32 PPO plans, and 33 Special Needs Plans for people who qualify (dual-eligible, chronic condition, or institutional). All 73 include drug coverage.

The carriers offering plans in the county are Aetna (CVS Health), AgeRight Advantage, Centene (WellCare), Community Health Plan of WA Medicare Advantage, Devoted Health, Elevance Health (Anthem), Humana, Kaiser Permanente, Molina Healthcare of Washington, Regence BlueShield, SCAN Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare. The table below lists every plan by carrier so you can see the full field before you compare.

The 2027 landscape file will publish plan-by-plan details closer to October 15, 2026 — that's when you'll be able to compare next year's specific premiums, copays and formularies on Medicare Plan Finder.

What CMS has not yet announced for 2027

Two big numbers most people care about are not final yet:

• The 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible (CMS typically announces these in November).
• The 2027 IRMAA income brackets (published with the Part B numbers). For reference, IRMAA surcharges begin above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.

Don't let anyone quote you a "2027 Part B premium" before CMS publishes it — those are guesses.

A simple order of operations

1. Read your ANOC. Mark anything that got worse for you. 2. List your doctors, hospitals and prescriptions. 3. On Medicare Plan Finder, enter your drugs and pharmacy and compare your current plan side-by-side with two or three others. 4. Call to confirm network status for 2027 with each provider. 5. Decide by December 7, 2026. Or stay — that's a valid choice too.

If you'd rather talk it through with a person who has no plan to sell you, Washington's Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) program is the local SHIP. Counseling is free and unbiased: call 1-800-562-6900.