Medicare Advantage

Springfield, Ore. Medicare Advantage 2027: 7 new plans, 15 gone

For 2027, Springfield is looking at 36 Medicare Advantage plans: 7 new, 15 gone since 2026, and 21 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 5 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Lane County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — With the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period opening October 15, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will once again publish its yearly Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans. For people in Springfield weighing their coverage this fall, understanding what those stars actually measure — and what they don't — can make the difference between an informed choice and a confusing one.

What Star Ratings Are

Medicare Star Ratings are a quality report card. CMS grades Medicare Advantage plans and stand-alone Part D drug plans on a scale from 1 star (poor) to 5 stars (excellent), in half-star steps. The ratings are refreshed once a year and posted on medicare.gov ahead of the fall enrollment window.

The goal is to give people an at-a-glance sense of how a plan performs — not on price, but on quality and service.

What the Stars Actually Measure

Star Ratings pull together dozens of separate measures. For Medicare Advantage plans that include drug coverage, CMS looks at roughly 40 different indicators. They fall into broad buckets:

• Staying healthy: whether members get recommended screenings, vaccines, and check-ups.
• Managing chronic conditions: how well the plan supports people living with diabetes, heart conditions, and similar long-term issues.
• Member experience: survey results on how members rate their plan and their care.
• Member complaints and changes in performance: how often people leave the plan, file grievances, or run into problems.
• Customer service: how the plan handles appeals, calls, and access to needed care.

For Part D drug plans, the ratings focus on drug safety, pricing accuracy, customer service, and member experience with the pharmacy benefit.

Importantly, the stars don't measure premiums, copays, or which drugs a plan covers. Those are separate shopping questions.

When and Where They're Published

CMS releases the new Star Ratings each October, timed to the Annual Enrollment Period that runs October 15 through December 7. Once posted, the ratings appear next to each plan on the Plan Finder tool at medicare.gov. They also show up in the printed Medicare & You handbook and in plans' own enrollment materials.

Ratings are set for the full plan year. The set posted this fall applies to coverage that begins January 1.

How to Use Them Wisely

Star Ratings are one useful data point — not the whole picture. A plan's quality score doesn't tell you whether your doctor is in the network, whether your prescriptions are on the formulary, or how much you'll pay out of pocket. It's a starting point for a longer conversation.

A practical approach:

1. Look up your current plan's rating and see if it changed. 2. Compare that to other plans available in Lane County, where Springfield residents shop for Medicare Advantage and Part D coverage. 3. Check the specific details — network, drug list, and total costs — before making a decision.

Why This Fall Matters

A few program-level changes are also in play for 2027, and they affect the same coverage year the new Star Ratings apply to:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is set at $2,100 in 2026, up from $2,000 in 2025.
• The maximum Part D deductible is $615.
• The old coverage gap (the "donut hole") remains eliminated, with Part D now working in three phases.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread drug costs across the year in monthly payments instead of paying at the pharmacy counter.
• IRMAA income-based surcharges start above $109,000 for a single filer in 2026.

None of those figures are captured in the Star Ratings themselves, but they shape the coverage year the ratings describe.