Your Medicare Annual Notice of Change: The Four Lines to Check Before December 7

What the notice is, and who gets one

The Annual Notice of Change is the plan’s own summary of what is different next year: premium, deductible, copays and coinsurance, covered benefits, the drug list, the network, and the area the plan serves. It goes to everyone enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan or a stand-alone Part D plan. Medicare requires the plan to send a printed copy by September 30.

People on Original Medicare without a drug plan do not get one, because there is no plan to change. Their equivalent is the annual handbook, Medicare & You, and whatever their supplement insurer sends about its own premium.

The notice is written by the plan, about the plan. It will not tell you whether a competing plan would suit you better, and it is not required to. That comparison is your job, and October is when to do it.

If September 30 has passed and nothing arrived, call the member services number on your card and ask for the Annual Notice of Change for 2027, or look for it in the plan’s online account. Do not wait for it to find you in November.

The four lines that decide it

1. What you pay. The monthly premium, the deductible, and the copays for the things you actually use: primary care, specialists, the hospital, imaging. Compare each against this year. A $0 premium that stays $0 while specialist copays rise is a price increase.

2. The drug list. Find every medication you take, by name and dose, in the plan’s formulary for 2027. Check three things: is it still covered, has it moved to a more expensive tier, and does it now need prior authorization or step therapy. Drug lists are rewritten every year, and this is the line that costs people the most money in January. What a formulary is.

3. The network. If you are in an Advantage plan, the notice will not list every doctor who left. Call your primary care office, each specialist, and ask the hospital you would use, giving the exact plan name: “Do you participate in this plan for 2027?”

4. The service area. A plan can shrink its area. If you moved or the plan redrew its map, you may need a new plan regardless of the other three lines.

What is already fixed for 2027, whatever your plan

A few numbers apply to everyone, and they help you read the notice.

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,400 in 2027, up from $2,100. Once your own spending on covered drugs reaches it, covered drugs cost nothing for the rest of the year. No plan’s notice can set it higher.
• The largest deductible a standard drug plan may charge is $700.
• The 2027 Part B premium had not been announced when we checked. It is set by Medicare, not by your plan, and it usually comes out in the fall.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan continues. It renews by itself if you stay in the same plan and ends if you switch.

If your notice shows a drug deductible, compare it with the $700 ceiling; if it shows an out-of-pocket maximum for drugs, it should not exceed $2,400.

Deciding: keep, switch, or ask

Free, objective help with any of this: HIICAP, New York’s Medicare counseling program, at 1-800-701-0501. It sells nothing and earns nothing from your choice.

If you have Medicaid or Extra Help too

The notice works the same way, with one difference in timing. People who have Medicaid or receive Extra Help can make certain coverage changes once a calendar month, effective the first day of the following month, rather than only in the fall. That does not make the notice less important; it means a mistake is easier to correct. Ask a HIICAP counselor which changes that covers in your situation. Medicare and Medicaid together.

And check that your help carried over. If your notice or your first 2027 bill shows a full drug-plan premium and you have Extra Help or a Medicare Savings Program, call the plan: something did not reach its system. How Extra Help works.