Your 2026 Medicare Annual Enrollment Period Checklist

Every fall, from October 15 to December 7, Medicare opens the Annual Enrollment Period, and any change you make takes effect January 1 of the following year. For 2026, that means the window closes December 7 and your new coverage begins January 1, 2027. It is the one stretch of the year when almost anyone can switch Medicare Advantage plans, change Part D drug plans, or move between Advantage and Original Medicare with drug coverage. The mistake most people make is treating it as optional. Even if you love your plan, it can change underneath you, and the only way to know is to look. Here is the checklist I walk clients through so nothing slips past you.

Bryce's Take

The clients who get burned are almost never the ones who switched plans. They are the ones who did nothing, let the plan auto-renew, and found out in January that their drug moved to a higher tier or their doctor left the network. I re-shop every one of my clients every fall whether they think they need it or not, because the plan you loved last year is not always the plan you have next year. If we talk before December 7, you start January with no surprises.

Step 1: Read your Annual Notice of Change

Sometime in September, your current plan mails you an Annual Notice of Change, usually called the ANOC. It is easy to mistake for junk mail and just as easy to toss. Do not. This document spells out exactly what is changing for the coming year: your premium, your deductible, your copays, your drug tiers, and any benefits being added or cut. Read it side by side with what you have now. If your plan is quietly raising a copay or dropping a benefit you rely on, this is where you find out, and reading it takes ten minutes.

Step 2: Re-check every drug against next year's formulary

Drug plans rework their formularies every year. A medication that sits on a cheap tier today can jump to a higher tier, land behind prior authorization, or fall off the covered list entirely for 2027. Pull out your actual list of prescriptions, exact names and dosages, and confirm each one is still covered and still on a tier you can afford under next year's plan. This single step catches more expensive surprises than anything else on the list, because drug coverage is where plans make the most changes and where those changes hit your wallet fastest.

Step 3: Confirm your doctors and pharmacy are still in network

Networks are not permanent. Doctors leave plans, plans drop providers, and preferred pharmacies get reshuffled every year. Before you renew anything, verify that your primary care doctor, your specialists, and your preferred hospital are still in network for 2027, and check that your pharmacy is still a preferred pharmacy, because using a standard pharmacy instead of a preferred one can quietly raise what you pay for the same prescription. Do not assume last year's answer still holds.

Step 4: Compare your plan against the alternatives

Even a plan that looks unchanged might no longer be the best fit, because the other plans in your county change too. A competitor may have added a benefit you would use, lowered a copay that matters to you, or built a drug formulary that covers your medications more cheaply. The only way to know whether you still have the right plan is to line yours up against what else is available in your zip code for 2027. Comparing on total annual cost, premium plus deductible plus your realistic copays plus your drug costs, matters far more than comparing premiums alone.

Step 5: Watch for premium, copay, and benefit changes together

It is tempting to judge a plan by its premium, but the premium is the smallest part of the picture. A plan can hold its premium flat while raising your specialist copay, shrinking its drug formulary, or trimming its dental allowance. Look at the whole design for 2027: what you pay each month, what you pay when you actually use care, and what benefits you would genuinely use. Add it up as a full year of realistic spending, not a single headline number.

Step 6: Do not auto-renew blindly

If you do nothing during AEP, your current plan generally rolls over into next year with all of its 2027 changes baked in, whether those changes help you or hurt you. Auto-renewal is not a decision, it is the absence of one. The whole point of the Annual Enrollment Period is to make an active choice with the new information in front of you. Most people should re-shop every single year, even when they are perfectly happy, precisely because the plan they are happy with may not be the plan it was when they signed up.

When to get help

This checklist is exactly the work an independent broker does for you, at no cost. Running your drug list against every plan's 2027 formulary, confirming your doctors, and comparing total annual cost across your county is time-consuming and detail-heavy, and it is the part of Medicare where small mistakes get expensive. If you would rather not comb through an ANOC and cross-check formularies yourself, that is what a free call is for. You bring your drug list and your doctors, and I do the comparison.

Bryce Casson

Licensed Independent Medicare Broker

Bryce Casson is an independent Medicare insurance broker who works with every major carrier. He does not represent any single insurer, which means his recommendations are based on what actually fits each client's situation, not on commissions or quotas.