Enrollment · Delta County, Colorado · Plan year 2027

The letter that decides your 2027 Medicare costs: reading the Annual Notice of Change in Delta County

It arrives in September, it is thin, and it looks like junk mail. It is the only advance warning you get that your premium, your deductible, your drug list or your doctor's network is changing on January 1 — and this year there is more in it than usual.

Bemis Insurance Data Desk

Reviewed by Trinity Bemis, Licensed Insurance Broker & Medicare Specialist (NPN 21424070) · Published 2026-09-01

The short answer

The Annual Notice of Change is the letter your Medicare Advantage plan or Part D drug plan must send you every September, listing exactly what it is changing on January 1. Premium, deductible, drug tiers, formulary, pharmacy network, provider network, out-of-pocket maximum, extra benefits — if it is moving, it is in there.

You do not have to do anything with it. That is the problem. If you set it aside, your plan renews automatically under the new terms, and the first time most people notice is when the January pharmacy bill is different. Open Enrollment, October 15 – December 7, 2026, is the window to change your mind. After December 7 the door closes for most people until the following fall.

Two things make the 2027 letter worth more attention than usual. Federal law raised both the maximum deductible a drug plan may charge and the annual out-of-pocket cap. And CMS has announced that the demonstration program which has been holding stand-alone drug plan premiums down since 2025 will not continue into 2027.

Sources: Medicare.gov — Plan Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) · Medicare.gov — Open Enrollment · CMS — Medicare Part D 2027 National Average Monthly Bid Amount Information (July 28, 2026). Retrieved September 2026.

Sources: eCFR — 42 CFR 423.128(g), Part D disclosure requirements and changes in rules · CMS — Announcement of Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Medicare Advantage Capitation Rates and Part C and Part D Payment Policies (Attachment V) · CMS — Medicare Monthly Enrollment (data.cms.gov).

What an Annual Notice of Change actually is

Medicare.gov describes it in one sentence: if you are in a Medicare plan, your plan sends a Plan Annual Notice of Change each fall, it arrives in September, and it includes any changes in coverage, costs and more that will be effective in January. Medicare's own instruction is equally short — review the changes and decide whether the plan will still meet your needs next year.

The deadline is not a courtesy. Federal regulation requires a Part D sponsor that is changing its rules for January 1 to notify all enrollees at least 15 days before the Annual Coordinated Election Period begins, and Medicare Advantage organizations operate under the parallel disclosure rule. Open Enrollment opens October 15, which puts the ANOC in the mail by September 30.

A second, much thicker document follows. The Evidence of Coverage is the actual contract — hundreds of pages of what is covered, what is excluded, how appeals work, what the plan may do mid-year — and plans must deliver it by October 15. Most people never open it. Keep it anyway; it is the document you cite in an appeal.

Here is what the ANOC does not tell you, which matters just as much:

• Your Part B premium. That is set by CMS, not your plan, and announced separately each fall. In 2026 the standard premium is $202.90 a month with a $283 annual deductible.
• Your IRMAA surcharge. If your income puts you above the thresholds, Social Security sends its own determination letter, usually in November or December.
• Your Medigap rate. A Medicare Supplement policy is not a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan and does not send an ANOC. Rate changes come from the insurer on their own schedule.
• Whether a better plan exists. The letter compares your plan to itself. It has no incentive to tell you that the plan across the street is cheaper for your specific drug list.

Sources: Medicare.gov — Plan Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) · eCFR — 42 CFR 423.128(g), Part D disclosure requirements and changes in rules, paragraph (g)(2) · eCFR — 42 CFR 422.111(d), Medicare Advantage disclosure requirements · Medicare.gov — Medicare costs. Retrieved September 2026.

What already changed for 2027, before you open the envelope

Some of the 2027 numbers are not your plan's decision at all. They are federal parameters, published by CMS in April 2026 and again in July, and they apply to every Part D plan in the country — the one in your letter included. Knowing them before you read the letter tells you which changes are ordinary and which are your plan making a choice.

Sources: CMS — Announcement of Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Medicare Advantage Capitation Rates and Part C and Part D Payment Policies (Attachment V), Tables V-2 and V-6 · CMS — Medicare Part D 2027 National Average Monthly Bid Amount Information (July 28, 2026) · CMS — 2026 Medicare Part D Bid Information and Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration Parameters · CMS Retiree Drug Subsidy — Cost Threshold and Cost Limit Amounts for Plan Years Ending in 2027, and the Parameters for Medicare Part D Plans in 2027. Plan years 2026 and 2027.

Read the deductible line carefully, because it is the one most often misunderstood. $700 is a ceiling, not a bill. Plans may charge less, and several Colorado plans charge nothing on some drug tiers. But a plan that charged you a $0 deductible in 2026 is entitled to charge up to $700 in 2027, and that change alone can cost more than a premium increase would.

The out-of-pocket cap moving from $2,100 to $2,400 is worth understanding in the same spirit. The cap is genuinely protective — once your out-of-pocket spending on covered Part D drugs reaches it, covered drugs cost you nothing for the rest of the calendar year. It is also $2,400 of your money before that happens, $300 more than this year. We covered how the ceiling works, and how to check your own prescriptions against a plan's formulary, in our guide to the Part D out-of-pocket cap.

One footnote that is easy to miss: the base beneficiary premium is also the number your Part D late enrollment penalty is calculated from. If you are paying a penalty, it is 1% of that figure for each month you went without creditable coverage — so the penalty itself rises with it, automatically, every year, for as long as you have Part D.

The premium cushion that ends on December 31

This is the part of the 2027 story that will not be explained in your letter, and it deserves plain language.

When the Inflation Reduction Act redesigned the Part D benefit, CMS worried that stand-alone drug plan premiums would swing wildly while insurers learned what the new design actually costs. So in 2025 it launched a voluntary Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration. Participating stand-alone plans got a flat reduction applied to the base beneficiary premium, and agreed to a hard limit on how much any one plan's total premium could rise year over year.

Sources: CMS — CMS Releases 2025 Medicare Part D Bid Information and Announces Premium Stabilization Demonstration · CMS — 2026 Medicare Part D Bid Information and Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration Parameters · CMS — Medicare Part D 2027 National Average Monthly Bid Amount Information (July 28, 2026). The demonstration applied only to stand-alone prescription drug plans, and only to those that chose to participate.

On July 28, 2026 CMS stated that plan sponsors now have sufficient experience under the redesigned benefit, and that it will discontinue the demonstration at the end of 2026 to return the program to operating under traditional market conditions in 2027. In the same announcement it put the 2027 national average monthly bid amount at $296.05, up from $239.27 for 2026 — a 23.7% increase in what plans collectively say the basic benefit costs to provide.

Be careful with what that does and does not predict. The bid amount sets the government's subsidy to plans, not your premium, and no one can tell you from these figures what any specific plan will charge you in 2027. What they do say is that the two mechanisms that softened stand-alone drug plan premiums for two years — the flat reduction and the increase limit — are both gone, and that the underlying cost of the benefit went up. For the 3,587 people in Delta County who carry a stand-alone drug plan alongside Original Medicare, that is a reason to compare rather than renew by default.

If a bigger premium is the problem, there are two other levers worth knowing about. Extra Help, the Part D Low Income Subsidy, pays most or all of a drug plan premium for people who qualify, and the Colorado low-income premium subsidy amount for 2026 is $35.24 a month. And the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan spreads your drug costs across the calendar year in monthly installments — it does not reduce what you owe, but it can keep a January refill from landing all at once.

Colorado's 2026 drug plans: your comparison baseline

You cannot compare 2027 plans yet. CMS says it releases the Medicare Advantage and Part D landscape in mid-to-late September, once all offerings are finalized, along with final average premiums. Until then, the useful thing is to know what the current field looks like, so that when your letter quotes a new premium you can tell immediately whether it is in line or out of line.

These are all 10 stand-alone prescription drug plans available in Colorado for 2026. Every one of them is sold region-wide, which means the same list is available in Delta, Cedaredge, Paonia, Hotchkiss and Crawford as in Denver.

Source: CMS — Medicare Advantage / Part D Landscape files (plan premiums and benefits by county), CY2026 landscape file (March 2026 release), Colorado PDP region 27. Premiums are the total Part D premium before any Extra Help subsidy or income-related adjustment. Star ratings are the Part D summary rating, on a 1-to-5 scale. Plan year 2026.

Three things stand out, and they are the same three things that will matter in the 2027 list.

• The spread is enormous. From $0.00 to $151.90 a month — roughly $1,823 a year apart — for plans operating under identical federal rules. Premium alone never tells you which is cheaper for you.
• A low premium usually buys a full deductible. Both $0-premium plans carry the full $615 deductible. The plan with no deductible at all charges $137.10 a month. That is the trade, made explicit.
• Star ratings do not track price. The two plans carrying a 3.5 Part D star rating are also among the three lowest premiums on the list. Quality and cost are not the same axis.

Alongside those, CMS listed 31 Medicare Advantage, Special Needs and Cost plan offerings for Delta County in 2026. If you are weighing that route against Original Medicare with a supplement, our Medigap versus Medicare Advantage comparison for Montrose and Delta counties works through the trade-off in full.

How to read your ANOC in twenty minutes

You do not need to read the whole thing. You need to find seven lines. Sit down with the letter, your current premium, and the list of drugs you actually take — the names, doses and monthly quantities, not "my blood pressure pill."

Structure reflects the required contents of the Annual Notice of Change and Evidence of Coverage under 42 CFR 422.111 and 42 CFR 423.128, and the review guidance at Medicare.gov.

Then do the one step that the letter cannot do for you: put your drug list into Medicare's Plan Finder with your ZIP code and your regular pharmacy, and let it total the year. Plan Finder prices your specific prescriptions at your specific pharmacy across every plan available to you, and it is free and unbiased. Premium plus deductible plus twelve months of copays is the only number that answers the question. A $0 premium plan with a $700 deductible and your brand-name drug on a coinsurance tier can easily cost more over a year than a $60 plan that covers it cheaply.

Three practical notes for households out here. Run the comparison with the pharmacy you will actually drive to in January, because preferred pharmacy status changes a copay more than most people expect. If you use mail order, price it both ways. And if your household has two people on Medicare, run each person separately — the right plan for one is frequently the wrong plan for the other, and there is no household discount.

What if your plan is not coming back?

Sometimes the letter is not an Annual Notice of Change at all. If your plan is being discontinued for 2027, or is consolidating into a different plan, you will get a separate non-renewal notice — and that changes your options rather than shrinking them.

Medicare.gov is explicit: when a Medicare Advantage plan, Medicare drug plan or Medicare Cost plan contract with Medicare is not renewed for the next contract year, you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period running from December 8 through the last day of February 2027. You can use Open Enrollment instead, and generally should — a switch made by December 7 starts cleanly on January 1, while a switch made in January or February leaves a gap you have to live through.

What happens if you do nothing is the part worth internalizing. You are enrolled in Original Medicare. That is real coverage for hospital and medical care, but it includes no drug coverage at all, and every month without creditable drug coverage adds to a Part D late enrollment penalty you will pay for as long as you have Part D. Our guide to Medicare late enrollment penalties in Delta County explains how the arithmetic compounds.

One more caution, specific to people leaving Medicare Advantage. Returning to Original Medicare is straightforward; buying a Medigap policy to go with it is not always. Outside of a guaranteed issue right or your one-time Medigap open enrollment window, an insurer may use medical underwriting and may decline you. Confirm what you can buy before you drop the plan you have. Our guide to Medigap open enrollment and guaranteed issue rights covers which situations carry that protection.

Source: Medicare.gov — Special Enrollment Periods, plan non-renewal Special Enrollment Period. Retrieved September 2026.

Who this lands on in Delta County

The rules in this article are federal and identical in Delta, Grand Junction and Denver. What is local is the mix of who gets which letter.

CMS counted 10,535 Medicare beneficiaries in Delta County in calendar year 2025. Of those, 4,980 — 47.3% — were in a Medicare Advantage or other health plan, the highest share of the six counties we serve. That means nearly half of Delta County's Medicare households get an ANOC covering not just drug costs but their provider network: which doctors, which clinic, which hospital.

8,129 Delta County beneficiaries had Medicare drug coverage in 2025. 4,542 of them got it through a Medicare Advantage plan, and 3,587 — about 44% of everyone with drug coverage — carried a stand-alone Part D plan alongside Original Medicare. That second group is the one sitting directly in the path of the demonstration ending. And 6,504 Delta County beneficiaries with drug coverage had no low-income subsidy softening the cost, which means a premium change reaches them at full size.

Source: CMS — Medicare Monthly Enrollment (data.cms.gov), calendar year 2025 county totals, stand-alone prescription drug plan enrollees. Across the six counties we serve, 32,512 people carry a stand-alone Part D plan.

Put the two halves together. In Delta County the more common letter is a Medicare Advantage ANOC, where the network and the extra benefits can move as much as the premium — and a network change matters more when the nearest in-network specialist may be in Montrose or Grand Junction rather than in town. For the 3,587 households with a stand-alone drug plan, the letter is shorter and the question is narrower: what does my drug list cost next year, at my pharmacy, under this plan versus the other nine.

If you are also weighing whether Medicare Advantage still fits, note that the switch does not have to be decided in December. Anyone enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan on January 1 gets a second window — our guide to the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period covers what that January-to-March window does and does not allow. And if you are eligible for both Medicare and Health First Colorado, the rules are different again; see dual-eligible plans in Delta County.

Five mistakes worth avoiding

1. Throwing it out. It is thin, it is from an insurance company, and it looks like an advertisement. It is the only document that tells you what changes on January 1. Open the September mail carefully.
2. Comparing premiums only. Premium, deductible and twelve months of copays for your actual drugs at your actual pharmacy. Colorado's 2026 stand-alone plans ranged from $0.00 to $151.90 a month, and the lowest premium was not the lowest total cost for everyone.
3. Assuming your drug stayed put. Formularies and tiers are rebuilt every year. Look up each prescription by name. A drug that leaves the formulary is the most expensive surprise in the letter.
4. Forgetting the pharmacy network. Preferred status changes copays, and the list is redrawn annually. Confirm the pharmacy you drive to is still preferred — not merely in-network.
5. Dropping Medicare Advantage before checking what Medigap you can buy. Outside a guaranteed issue right or your Medigap open enrollment window, a supplement insurer may use medical underwriting. Find out what you qualify for first.

And one habit worth building instead: put a reminder on the calendar for the first week of October, every year. Letter, drug list, Plan Finder, decision. Twenty minutes once a year, done before Thanksgiving, beats discovering the change at the pharmacy counter in January.

We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE, or your local State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options. Bemis Insurance is a licensed independent insurance agency. Not connected with or endorsed by the United States government or the federal Medicare program. This article is education, not advice — confirm your own costs, eligibility, plan rules and deadlines with Medicare.gov, with your plan, or with a licensed agent before you act. Figures above are the calendar year 2027 Part D benefit parameters published by CMS in Attachment V of the CY2027 Rate Announcement and in its July 28, 2026 bid fact sheet; calendar year 2026 Part D and Original Medicare cost sharing published by Medicare.gov and CMS; Colorado plan premiums, deductibles and star ratings from the CMS CY2026 Medicare Advantage and Part D Landscape file; and CMS county enrollment counts for calendar year 2025. Each is linked to its source. Plan availability, benefits, premiums and cost sharing for 2027 are not final until CMS releases the 2027 landscape, and program rules change.

Sources

• Medicare.gov — Plan Annual Notice of Change (ANOC)
• Medicare.gov — Open Enrollment
• Medicare.gov — Special Enrollment Periods
• Medicare.gov — How much does Medicare drug coverage cost?
• Medicare.gov — Medicare costs
• eCFR — 42 CFR 423.128(g), Part D disclosure requirements and changes in rules
• eCFR — 42 CFR 422.111(d), Medicare Advantage disclosure requirements
• CMS — Announcement of Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Medicare Advantage Capitation Rates and Part C and Part D Payment Policies (Attachment V)
• CMS — Medicare Part D 2027 National Average Monthly Bid Amount Information (July 28, 2026)
• CMS — 2026 Medicare Part D Bid Information and Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration Parameters
• CMS — CMS Releases 2025 Medicare Part D Bid Information and Announces Premium Stabilization Demonstration
• CMS Retiree Drug Subsidy — Cost Threshold and Cost Limit Amounts for Plan Years Ending in 2027, and the Parameters for Medicare Part D Plans in 2027
• CMS — Medicare Advantage / Part D Landscape files (plan premiums and benefits by county)
• CMS — Medicare Monthly Enrollment (data.cms.gov)
• Medicare.gov — Find health & drug plans
• Medicare.gov — Help with drug costs (Extra Help)
• Medicare & You 2026 (official handbook)
• Colorado Division of Insurance — Senior health care and Medicare (SHIP)
• SHIP National Technical Assistance Center — find your local SHIP