Blog / Medicare Advantage

Does my Medicare plan cover my medications next year?

The Annual Notice of Change that arrives every September tells you. Here are the five things to look for before you file it away.

Updated August 17, 2026 · 2 min read

Every September your plan mails an Annual Notice of Change, usually called the ANOC. It lists everything that is different about your plan for the coming year.

It looks like junk mail. It is the most important piece of mail you get all year, and reading it takes about fifteen minutes.

Why it matters

If you do nothing, your plan renews automatically in January with all of these changes applied. Nobody calls to tell you your medication moved tiers or your cardiologist left the network.

The ANOC arrives in September specifically so you have time to act before Annual Enrollment closes on December 7.

The five things to check

1. Your medications. Are they all still on the formulary, and on the same tier? A drug moving from tier 2 to tier 4 can multiply your cost. Also check for new restrictions like prior authorization or step therapy.
2. Your doctors and hospital. The ANOC will note network changes, though the plan's directory is the better source. Call the billing offices to confirm.
3. The out of pocket maximum. If it went up, your worst case year got more expensive.
4. Copays and coinsurance. Look specifically at primary care, specialist, inpatient hospital and imaging. Watch for anything that changed from a flat copay to a percentage.
5. The premium and any extra benefits. Dental, vision and hearing allowances are commonly adjusted.

What to do with what you find

If nothing meaningful changed and your doctors are still in network, you can let the plan renew and do nothing.

If something did change, you have from October 15 to December 7 to move. That is the window and it does not extend.

How to compare against alternatives

1. List every medication with dosage.
2. Run them through the Plan Finder at Medicare.gov with your ZIP and your pharmacy.
3. Sort by total estimated annual cost, not by premium.
4. Check the top few results against your doctors by calling their billing offices.
5. Compare out of pocket maximums.

See how to look up plans in your area.

If you already threw it out

You can get another copy from the plan, and the same information is in the Evidence of Coverage and on the plan's website. Call member services and ask them to send it.

You can also just do the comparison directly in the Plan Finder, which is arguably more useful anyway since it compares your plan against everything else rather than against its own prior year.

See what to do during Annual Enrollment.