Medicare Advantage

Medicare Star Ratings for 2027: Morgantown, W.Va.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Each fall, just before the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period opens, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes updated Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans. The 2027 ratings are now available on Medicare.gov, and for people in and around Morgantown who are starting to sort through their options, understanding what those little stars mean — and what they don't — can make the whole process feel less overwhelming.

Star Ratings are out — here's what they actually tell you

Star Ratings aren't a ranking of "best plans." They're a snapshot of how a plan performed on dozens of specific quality measures during a recent measurement year. Think of them less like a Yelp review and more like a school report card.

What the stars actually measure

CMS scores plans on a 1-to-5 scale, with 5 stars considered excellent and 1 star considered poor. The score is built from more than 40 individual measures grouped into a few big categories:

• Staying healthy: whether members get recommended screenings, vaccines, and check-ups.
• Managing chronic conditions: how well the plan supports members with things like diabetes or heart disease.
• Member experience: what enrollees say in surveys about their care and their plan.
• Member complaints and plan performance: how often people leave the plan, file complaints, or have problems getting services.
• Customer service: how the plan handles appeals and calls.

Part D drug plans are scored on a shorter list that focuses on drug safety, pricing accuracy, and customer service.

The important thing to understand: the star is an average of many measures. A 3.5-star plan might do very well on customer service and less well on chronic-care management, or the reverse. The single number hides a lot of detail.

Why the timing matters this fall

CMS releases the ratings in October so that people have them in hand when the Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7. If you're comparing plans on Medicare.gov during that window, the star icon you see next to each plan is the 2027 rating.

There's also a separate window — the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, January 1 through March 31 — when people already in a Medicare Advantage plan can make one change. Star Ratings are relevant then too, though the tools most people use are open year-round on Medicare.gov.

Morgantown is in Monongalia County — and that matters

Medicare Advantage and Part D plan availability is set at the county level, not the city level. Morgantown sits in Monongalia County, so when you look up plans on Medicare.gov using a Morgantown ZIP code, you're really seeing the plans approved to serve Monongalia County. Star Ratings for those plans come from the plan's national or regional performance, not from anything specific to West Virginia.

That's worth knowing because a plan can have the same star rating everywhere it operates, even if local doctor networks and pharmacy options look very different from one county to the next.

What the stars won't tell you

Star Ratings are useful, but they don't answer the questions most people actually have:

• Is my doctor in the network?
• Are my prescriptions covered, and at what tier?
• Is my preferred pharmacy in the plan?
• How does the plan handle prior authorization?

A high-star plan that doesn't include your cardiologist may not be the right fit. A lower-star plan that covers all your medications on preferred tiers might work better for your situation. The stars are one input — not the whole decision.

Other 2027 numbers worth knowing

While you're comparing plans, a few program-wide figures for 2027 are helpful context:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027. Once you hit that amount, you pay nothing more for covered drugs for the rest of the calendar year.
• The Part D maximum deductible is $615 in 2026 and $700 in 2027, though many plans set theirs lower.
• The coverage gap ("donut hole") is gone — Part D now has three phases instead of four.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread your drug costs into monthly payments if that helps your budget.
• IRMAA — the income-related surcharge on Part B and Part D premiums — starts above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.