Medicare Advantage marketing rules loosen today

Medicare Advantage marketers get a wider lane starting today. CMS's final 2027 rule lifts several limits on how agents, brokers, and third-party marketers can contact beneficiaries, just as 2027 plan marketing ramps up. The Medicare Rights Center expects a noticeably higher volume of calls, mailers, and ads this season.

The same rule strips quality measures from Star Ratings, including call-center and appeals-handling metrics that insurers long argued were applied unfairly. CMS's own analysis projects the softer scoring will transfer about $18.5 billion to plan sponsors over ten years, by pushing ratings, and the bonus payments tied to them, higher. Ratings published ahead of this fall's enrollment may therefore look better without the plans' care changing at all.

Source: govtschemes.org | October 1, 2026

Topic: CMS