Medicare Supplement

Medicare Star Ratings Drop This Fall Before Dec. 7 Deadline

CASPER, Wyo. — With the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period running October 15 through December 7, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is once again publishing its yearly Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. For older adults across Casper weighing their coverage for 2026, those star icons on Medicare.gov are one of the few standardized quality signals available — but they're widely misunderstood.

Casper Beneficiaries: Here's What Star Ratings Actually Measure

Here's a plain look at what the ratings mean, when they post, and how to use them as part of a bigger picture during this year's enrollment window.

What Star Ratings Actually Measure

CMS scores Medicare Advantage and Part D plans on a 1-to-5 scale, with 5 being the highest. The rating is a rolling snapshot of plan performance based on dozens of measures, grouped into categories such as:

• Staying healthy — how often members get screenings, tests, and vaccines.
• Managing chronic conditions — care coordination for issues like diabetes or heart disease.
• Member experience — survey responses on ease of getting care and satisfaction.
• Member complaints and changes in performance — including how often members leave the plan.
• Customer service — call center responsiveness, appeals handling, and language access.
• Drug plan performance — pricing accuracy, medication safety, and adherence for Part D.

Ratings are updated once a year, published each October ahead of open enrollment.

Where Casper Fits In

Casper sits in Natrona County, and Medicare plan availability — including which Medicare Advantage and stand-alone Part D options appear on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder — is set at the county level. That means two people living a few blocks apart in Casper generally see the same menu of plans, but someone in a neighboring county may see a different list.

When you compare star ratings on Medicare.gov, you'll be looking at plans available in Natrona County specifically. Ratings themselves are contract-level and set nationally by CMS, not by the state or the county.

Why the 2026 Ratings Matter More Than Usual

This fall's ratings arrive alongside meaningful changes to Medicare itself. For 2026:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 — a hard ceiling on what you'll pay for covered prescriptions in a calendar year.
• The Part D maximum deductible is $615.
• The coverage gap ("donut hole") remains eliminated, with Part D now structured in three phases: deductible, initial coverage, and catastrophic.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread your drug costs across monthly installments instead of paying large amounts at the pharmacy counter.
• IRMAA surcharges — the higher-income adjustments to Part B and Part D premiums — begin above $109,000 in income for a single filer.

Star Ratings don't change these program-wide rules, but they can help you gauge how well a given plan handles the customer-service side of them — appeals, pharmacy accuracy, and care coordination.

How to Read the Ratings Honestly

A high star rating is not a guarantee that a plan is the right fit for you, and a lower rating isn't a reason alone to walk away. Ratings look backward at last year's data; your priorities look forward — your doctors, your prescriptions, your travel plans, your budget.

A good approach:

1. Start with your must-haves: current doctors, specific medications, preferred pharmacies. 2. Look at total expected costs — premium, deductible, and cost-sharing for the drugs and services you actually use. 3. Then use the star rating as a tiebreaker or a quality check, particularly the categories that matter most to you (say, drug safety if you take several prescriptions).

Key Dates to Circle

• October 15 – December 7: Medicare Annual Enrollment Period. Changes made now take effect January 1.
• January 1 – March 31: Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one chance during this window to switch to another MA plan or return to Original Medicare.

Missing December 7 doesn't lock you out forever, but it does limit your options until the next window.