Overall Star Ratings Declined for Multiple Medicare Advantage Part C Insurers
November 5, 2026
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D Star Ratings on October 8, 2026, introducing significant structural revisions aimed at driving clinical outcomes and increasing program precision. In addition to other changes, the 2027 update expands the measure set by adding new pharmaceutical evaluations and updated screening guidelines. Concurrently, CMS eliminated 11 administrative process measures and increased the weight of core health status maintenance metrics. Industry scoring also experienced contraction under tighter relative cut points, the thresholds CMS uses to convert MA plans’ quality and performance scores into a 1-to-5-star rating. Medicare Advantage Star Ratings faced heightened legal scrutiny in 2025 and 2026, with multiple insurers challenging CMS's rating methodologies, resulting in court rulings, rating recalculations, and ongoing appeals.
For this analysis, Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) used Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, a product that helps simplify analysis of the Medicare.gov data and includes details on the Star Ratings metrics and enrollment for companies competing in Medicare Advantage (MA). This brief presents a snapshot of the overall 2025 to 2027 MA Star Ratings for Part C.
Medicare Star Ratings
All health and drug plan ratings are reported at the contract level by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). For the 2027 Star Ratings, Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug (MA-PD) contracts are evaluated on up to 43 quality and performance measures, while Medicare Advantage-only (MA-only) contracts without prescription drug coverage are assessed on up to 32 measures. Stand-alone Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) contracts are rated on up to 13 measures. These measures are organized across domains that evaluate clinical quality, member experience, customer service, health outcomes, and drug plan performance, providing beneficiaries with a standardized assessment of plan quality to support enrollment decisions.
The contract (and plans within the contract) are rated on a 1- to 5-star scale, with 1 star for poor performance and 5 stars for excellent performance. Based on an analysis of CMS Star Ratings information from Medicare Benefits Analyzer, a total of 550 MA contracts, made up of 5,561 distinct MA plan offerings, are in the market lineup for 2027. This includes MA-only, MA-PD plans, and Special Needs Plans (SNPs) and, for this analysis, excludes PDP contracts and MA plans offered by employers.
- A total of 15 active Medicare Advantage (MA) contracts earned a 5-star rating for the 2027 rating year, down from 22 contracts in 2026. As a percentage of all MA contracts, 5-star plans represented 2.29% in 2027, compared with 3.12% in 2026. Despite the year-over-year decline, the 2027 share remains substantially above the .96% reported for 2025.
- For 2027, 13 of the 15 MA contracts receiving a 5-star rating included Special Needs Plans (SNPs) that were active during the rating year. SNPs are designed to provide targeted benefits and services to individuals with specific health conditions, specialized care needs, or dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid.
- Five-star MA contracts in 2027 were concentrated among a limited number of parent companies. Longevity, with around 6,000 members, currently in seven states with Institutional SNP plans, accounted for the largest share with five 5-star contracts, while UnitedHealth Group ranked second with three. The remaining 5-star contracts were distributed among Devoted Health Group, Elevance, GuideWell, Kaiser, Leon Holdings, MHH Healthcare, and Peak Health, each of which had one contract that achieved the highest rating.
- Two MA contracts have consistently achieved 5-star ratings across the 2025, 2026, and 2027 rating years. These contracts are sponsored by Leon Health Holdings and MHH Healthcare Group. Leon Health Plan (H4286), which primarily serves members in Florida, reported 40,630 members as of October 2026. MHH Healthcare Group's MCS Classicare (H5577), primarily based in Puerto Rico, reported enrollment of 360,519 members.
- The number of contracts that were not rated (0-star contracts) declined from 204 in 2026 to 172 in 2027. Under CMS rating requirements, plans must generally operate for at least three years and accumulate sufficient performance data before they are eligible to receive a Star Rating.
About Medicare Benefits Analyzer
Medicare Benefits Analyzer™ is a time-saving database for easy comparative analysis of Medicare premiums, co-pays and benefits. MBA includes analysis tools to help facilitate your assessment of the benefits data. Benefits and Star Quality Ratings data is collected and organized from the Medicare.gov website and is updated within days of the new benefits data being posted by CMS, usually during the first and second weeks of October, with periodic data refreshes. Interactive web tables present: Medicare Advantage (MA) and Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) benefits, premiums, co-pays, prescription (Rx) drug tiers & cost estimates by Plan, State & County; Star Quality Ratings data for measuring relative quality of MA & Part D plans; Drug tier costs by state presents standard and preferred pharmacy cost-sharing by drug tier, purchase type and supply for all MA & Part D plans; Plan Finder profiles by state and plan with screen-shots of benefit details for easy look-up and reference; Medicare Advantage & PDP enrollment figures per plan and current Summary Star Ratings; and user-friendly web interface with easy-to-navigate tables, downloadable to Excel. Medicare Benefits Analyzer™ subscriptions all include access to Medicare Business Online™ for the latest MA & PDP enrollment data.
About Mark Farrah Associates (MFA)
Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry. Our product portfolio includes Health Coverage Portal™, County Health Coverage™, 5500 Employer Health plus, ASO Employer Health plus, Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, and Health Plans USA™. For more information about these products, refer to the product pages and brochures available under the Our Products section of the website (www.markfarrah.com) or call 724-338-4100.
Healthcare Business Strategy is a FREE brief that presents analysis of important issues and developments affecting healthcare business today. If you would like to be added to our email distribution list, please submit your email to the "Subscribe to MFA Briefs" section at the bottom of this page.