Your Annual Medicare Review Checklist for 2027

Review your Medicare coverage every fall, even if you are happy with it. Plans renew automatically on January 1, but premiums, copays, networks and drug lists can all change, and your plan must tell you how in its Annual Notice of Change by September 30. The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 to December 7, 2026 for 2027 coverage. A good review takes about an hour: read the notice, re-check your drugs and doctors, compare total yearly cost against a few other plans, and decide whether to stay or switch.

Why a plan that worked this year may not work next year

Medicare Advantage and Part D plans sign a new contract with Medicare every year. Between one year and the next, a plan can raise or lower its premium, change copays, move a drug to a higher tier, add prior authorization, drop a doctor group or pharmacy from its network, or leave your county altogether. None of that requires your approval, and you are re-enrolled automatically unless you act.

The 2027 Part D rules also shift: the maximum deductible rises from $615 to $700 and the out-of-pocket cap rises from $2,100 to $2,400 (CMS CY2027 Rate Announcement). For people who take several brand-name drugs, that alone can change which plan costs least.

The checklist

• Find your Annual Notice of Change (and Evidence of Coverage) from your plan, mailed by September 30. Read the summary table of changes first. If your plan is not renewing, you should have had a separate non-renewal letter by October 2.
• Check your premium for 2027, and your Part B premium once CMS announces it in November.
• Re-check every prescription on the plan's 2027 drug list: is it still covered, what tier is it on, and is there new prior authorization, step therapy or a quantity limit?
• Confirm your pharmacy is still in network, and whether it has preferred cost sharing.
• Call your doctors' offices and ask whether they will be in network with your exact plan in 2027, not just "do you take that company".
• Compare the medical out-of-pocket maximum, specialist copays, hospital copays and any benefits you actually use, such as dental or hearing.
• Estimate total yearly cost: premiums plus expected copays plus drug costs, not premiums alone.
• Ask whether anything in your life changed: a new diagnosis, a move, a drop in income that could qualify you for Extra Help, a Medicare Savings Program or PAAD.
• Look up the plan's star rating. CMS released the 2027 ratings on October 8, 2026, and Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov shows them next to each plan.
• If you are in the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan and switching drug plans, opt in again with the new plan.
• Decide before December 7, 2026. If you switch, the new plan starts January 1 and your old plan ends automatically.

How to read your Annual Notice of Change

• Start with the summary table near the front. It lists this year and next year side by side for the premium, deductible, out-of-pocket maximum, and common copays.
• Then find the drug section. Look for each of your drugs by name, and note any tier change or new restriction.
• Then look for network changes. The notice may not list every doctor, so call your doctors directly.
• Finally, check extra benefits you use, such as a dental allowance, hearing aids or a fitness benefit. These change often.
• If the letter says your plan is being combined with another plan, compare the new plan as carefully as if you were choosing it from scratch.

A worked total-cost comparison

Here is why the premium alone can mislead. This is an illustration only, using two made-up plans, not a quote or a recommendation: Plan One charges $50 a month with a $4,500 in-network out-of-pocket maximum, and Plan Two charges $0 with a $9,850 maximum. Both include drug coverage. For scale, the real 2027 in-network maximums in Camden County run from $4,150 to $9,850 (CMS CY2027 Landscape file).

Illustration: a hypothetical example built from the rules and figures cited on this page, not a quote.

Adding drug costs to the worked example

The comparison above counts medical costs only. Now add a hypothetical person who takes enough brand-name medicine to reach the 2027 Part D cap of $2,400 in either plan, and twelve months of the 2026 standard Part B premium, $2,434.80 (the 2027 amount comes in November). Plan One comes to $600 + $4,500 + $2,400 + $2,434.80 = $9,934.80 in a hard year. Plan Two comes to $0 + $9,850 + $2,400 + $2,434.80 = $14,684.80. The drug cap is the same in both, so the gap stays $4,750.

For someone who takes only low-cost generics, the drug side looks very different: the drug deductible and the tier of each drug matter more than the cap. That is why Jackie prices the actual drug list in each plan rather than assuming.

Questions to consider when choosing or changing coverage

These come straight from the questions Medicare itself suggests, grouped the way Jackie walks through them with clients:

Source: CMS Part D Landscape, contract year 2027 (New Jersey PDP region 04).

If you have a Medicare Supplement

Medigap policies do not change their benefits each year; a Plan G is a Plan G. What changes is the premium. If your premium has climbed, you can apply to another company, but New Jersey has no birthday rule, so the new company can ask health questions. Do not cancel your current policy until a new one has approved you in writing.

Your standalone Part D plan does change every year, so it gets the full drug review above. New Jersey has 11 standalone Part D plans for 2027, with monthly premiums from $5.30 to $217.90 (CMS CY2027 Landscape file). If you have PAAD or Senior Gold, check that your Part D plan still works with the program for 2027.

Thinking of leaving Medicare Advantage for a supplement?

You can return to Original Medicare during the fall window or the January 1 to March 31 window, but in New Jersey that move does not by itself give you a guaranteed right to buy a Medicare Supplement. Outside your first six-month Medigap window, companies can ask health questions and turn you down or charge more.

There are exceptions. Under federal trial rights, if you joined Medicare Advantage when you first became eligible at 65, or dropped a Medigap policy to try Medicare Advantage for the first time, you can return within the first year without health questions. Federal guaranteed issue rights also apply if your plan leaves Medicare or your area. If none applies, apply for the supplement and wait for approval before you leave your Advantage plan.

The 2027 market in South Jersey

For 2027, Camden County has 41 Medicare Advantage plans from 10 organizations, not counting Special Needs Plans; Burlington and Gloucester counties have 39 each, Atlantic 36, Cumberland and Cape May 33 each, and Salem 32, according to the CY2027 CMS Landscape file. More choice is useful only if you narrow it with your own doctors and drugs, which is exactly what the checklist above does.

Your fall 2026 calendar

Source: 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D Star Ratings (CMS fact sheet, October 8, 2026).

What Jackie does in a fall review

Every fall Jackie follows the same steps for each person she works with, so nothing depends on memory. If you review on your own, borrow the list:

• Read the Annual Notice of Change with you, line by line, and flag every change that touches a drug, doctor or service you use.
• Re-run every prescription, at its dose and at your pharmacy, through the 2027 drug list of your current plan and two or three others.
• Call the offices of your doctors, or check the 2027 directory, for the exact plan, not just the company.
• Build a one-page sheet for each plan: twelve months of premium, expected copays, drug costs and the hard-year maximum.
• Check whether a change in income could qualify you for Extra Help, a Medicare Savings Program or PAAD, or whether an IRMAA appeal with form SSA-44 makes sense after retirement.
• Write down the decision and the reason, so next fall you start from what you chose and why.

Missed the deadline?

If you are in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one more change between January 1 and March 31. If you are on Original Medicare with a Part D plan, you generally wait until next fall unless a Special Enrollment Period applies, such as moving, losing other coverage or qualifying for Extra Help.

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The bottom line

Plans renew automatically, but they do not stay the same. Read your Annual Notice of Change, re-check your drugs, pharmacy and doctors against the 2027 plan, compare total yearly cost (premiums plus copays plus the worst case), and decide before December 7, 2026. Jackie offers a no-cost annual Medicare review by phone, Zoom or in person, and will tell you plainly if your current plan still fits.