Medicare put a low-performing icon on four Medicare Advantage plans that include drug coverage when it posted its 2027 Star Ratings on October 8, 2026. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services lists them in its 2027 Star Ratings fact sheet, a week before open enrollment begins on October 15. CMS counts them as contracts, so each name below is the insurer’s contract name.

The four flagged plans

The CMS table identifies these contracts as carrying the low-performing icon, with enrollment and the part of the plan that triggered the warning:

• H3814, Atrio Health Plans, enrollment 2,000, warning on Part C (the medical side)
• H4982, Aetna Better Health of California Inc., parent company CVS Health Corporation, enrollment 9,358, warning on Part C or Part D
• H7389, HealthSpring Life & Health Insurance Company, Inc., parent company Health Care Service Corporation, enrollment 0, warning on Part C
• H9066, Visiting Nurse Association of Central New York, enrollment 654, warning on Part D (the drug side)

Those enrollment figures add up to 12,012 people across the four contracts. The list is short because the icon is rare: CMS says 15 contracts earned the high-performing icon, six of them repeat winners from 2026.

The warning column matters because a plan can draw the flag for its medical coverage, its drug coverage or both. Part C is the Medicare Advantage side. Part D is the prescription drug side. Atrio, HealthSpring and Aetna Better Health of California carry a Part C warning in the table, Aetna’s also covering Part D, and the Visiting Nurse Association of Central New York carries a Part D warning only. Members choosing among plans should look at both halves of the rating, not just the overall stars.

A flagged plan or a mediocre star rating matters only against a real drug list, because the cheapest plan for one person’s prescriptions can be the priciest for another’s. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, and a prescription-by-plan comparison.

Price your prescriptions plan by plan in the Decision Kit before December 7 →

Who needs to look

Anyone in one of those four contracts, or whose plan card carries one of those names, should find the plan’s 2027 rating on Medicare’s Plan Finder before the enrollment window closes. The ratings were posted there on October 8. A reader with a Medicare Advantage plan from another insurer has no flag to worry about from this list, but the stars still differ plan by plan.

The overall picture is a small dip. CMS reports the enrollment-weighted average rating for Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage at 3.99, down from 4.01 last year, and about 71 percent of members in those plans are projected to be in a plan rated four stars or better. Standalone drug plans average 3.22 on Part D.

The enrollment window

Medicare’s annual enrollment period runs October 15 to December 7, and Medicare.gov says a request to change plans must reach the plan by December 7, according to its joining-a-plan page. Medicare.gov lists a 2027 out-of-pocket cap of $2,400, a maximum 2027 deductible of $700 and a 2027 base beneficiary premium of $41.33 on its Part D costs page.

A low-performing icon is a ratings flag, not a termination notice. CMS’s fact sheet does not say any of the four contracts will end. If a plan does not renew, Medicare.gov says a special enrollment period runs from December 8 through the last day of February.

Finding your plan’s stars and comparing it on a real drug list

The free route is Medicare’s own Plan Finder. Enter a ZIP code, add each prescription with its dose, and pick the pharmacies you use. That is where CMS posted the ratings, and it prices each plan against the drug list you enter.

Gather before you start: the red, white and blue Medicare card number, the insurance card from your current plan, every prescription name and dose, and the names of doctors you want to keep. Look for the low-performing icon on the plan page, then compare the current plan with two or three alternatives on total yearly cost, not premium alone.

Watch the date. A change has to reach the plan by December 7,. The CMS fact sheet remains the source for the four names and the ratings figures.

Four flagged plans, one drug list to price by December 7

The plans got their ratings on October 8, and the window to move closes December 7, which leaves about eight weeks to price a drug list across plans. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit gives a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, plus a prescription-by-plan comparison, so a member can keep, switch or wait with a written reason.

Compare your plan with two rivals in the Decision Kit’s cost calculator →

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.