You got a letter from your plan in September. Here's what it actually says.

What an ANOC letter actually is

The Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, is a letter every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan is required to send its members each year, no later than September 30. It lays out what is changing for the coming plan year: your premium, your deductible, your copays, which pharmacies and doctors are in network, and which drugs are covered and at what tier.

It is not a bill, and it is not asking you to do anything right away. It is a comparison of this year's plan against next year's version of the same plan, written by the plan itself. Reading it side by side with your current costs and prescriptions is the only way to know whether anything meaningful has changed.

Why some drug plan premiums look different for 2027

For the past several years, a federal Part D premium stabilization program limited how much the average premium for stand-alone prescription drug plans could rise from one year to the next. That program is ending. Without it in place, some stand-alone Part D plans are resetting their premiums for plan year 2027, and depending on your plan, that reset can be noticeable.

This does not mean your specific plan went up, or that every plan is affected the same way. It means the number printed on your ANOC letter is worth checking against what else is available in your area before you assume nothing changed.

The window for making a change

If you decide you want a different plan for next year, the Annual Enrollment Period runs from October 15 through December 7. Any change you make during that window takes effect January 1. Outside of that window, most people can only switch if they qualify for a Special Enrollment Period — for example, if their plan is leaving their county.