The short answer
Medicare star ratings are overall performance ratings Medicare gives to plans, built from member satisfaction surveys, the plans, and health care providers. A plan can get between 1 and 5 stars, and 5 stars is considered excellent. Medicare updates the ratings each fall for the following year, and they can change.
Plan year 2026. The current published set is the 2026 Star Ratings, read from Medicare.gov and from the CMS Part C and D Performance Data page on August 7, 2026. That CMS page carries the 2026 fact sheet, data tables, technical notes, display measures and categorical adjustment index supplement, and it already carries the 2027 Star Ratings Measures.
What changed since the 2025 ratings is not stated here. No 2025 source was read for this page, and a comparison that was not made will not be implied.
Say your plan drops a star. Nothing happens to your coverage, your doctors, or your bill. The rating describes how the plan performed last year, and only one number on that scale opens a door for you.
What are Medicare star ratings?
Medicare star ratings are overall performance ratings Medicare gives to plans, built from member satisfaction surveys, the plans, and health care providers. A plan can get between 1 and 5 stars, and 5 is considered excellent. Call it the Backdated Star: the rating is set before the plan year it labels.
The Backdated Star is our naming for a consequence of the government's own calendar. Medicare updates the ratings each fall for the following year. The cycle is Medicare's. The name, and pointing at what it means for a reader comparing plans, is ours.
Ratings attach to plans, not to doctors and not to hospitals. A hospital or a nursing home carries its own separate rating in Medicare's provider tool, and the two systems do not mix.
Plans rated 5 stars are marked with a special icon on Medicare.gov, so the top of the scale is visible without reading a table.
How are Medicare star ratings calculated?
Medicare star ratings are calculated from three kinds of information: member satisfaction surveys, information from the plans, and information from health care providers. Medicare combines those into one overall performance rating for a plan. The detailed measures and methods are published separately, by CMS, each year.
The three inputs split two ways. Member satisfaction surveys ask people already in the plan about their experience. Information from the plans and from health care providers is operational, not opinion.
That mix is why a rating is not a review. Part of it is what members said, and part of it is what the plan and its providers reported.
The published method is not a secret, and it is not light reading either. For the 2026 ratings, CMS posts a fact sheet, full data tables, technical notes, display measures and a categorical adjustment index supplement on one page. This page does not quote figures from those documents, because they are downloads and they were not opened.
What counts as a good star rating?
A 5-star rating is considered excellent, and that is the only point on the scale Medicare.gov labels in words. At the other end, a plan rated under 3 stars for the last 3 years is treated as low performing and carries its own right to leave. Everything between is unlabeled.
That leaves a middle with no official adjective. Between the excellent label at the top and the low performing category at the bottom, Medicare.gov attaches no word to a rating at all.
The scale runs one to five and each step means something specific.
| Stars | What it means | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Excellent | That it will suit you |
| 4 | Above average | That every part scored well |
| 3 | Average | That the plan is poor |
| 1 or 2 | Below average | That you must leave |
The right hand column matters more than the left. A rating is an average across many measures, and the measure you care about may not be the one that moved it.
The two labeled ends are the ones with consequences attached, and the consequences run in opposite directions. Excellent opens a door in. Low performing opens a door out.
The low-performing rule is stricter than it first reads, in the reader's favor. It takes a rating of less than 3 stars for three consecutive years, not one bad year, before that exit opens.
When are star ratings published each year?
Medicare updates star ratings each fall for the following year, and the ratings can change each year. The timing is the part most comparisons miss: a plan's 2026 rating was set before 2026 began. CMS publishes the supporting documents for each ratings year on its own performance data page.
So the number beside a plan name during a fall enrollment season describes the year ahead using work already finished. It is a forward label on backward-looking information.
The forward machinery is visible on the same CMS page. In August 2026 that page carried the full 2026 ratings document set and, already, the 2027 Star Ratings Measures, which name what the next ratings year will measure.
The published record is long. That one page carries a ratings or plan ratings release for every year back to 2007, so a rating set has been published every year since 2007.
Do star ratings predict my experience?
No page read for this article promises that a star rating predicts one person's experience. Medicare.gov states what the ratings are for: they help you compare plans based on quality and performance. That is a comparison between plans, not a forecast for one member.
The distinction matters most for the reader with a narrow question. A rating cannot tell you whether your doctor is in the network, whether your drug is on the formulary, or what a particular service will cost you.
What the rating can do is put two plans side by side on the same measured scale, which is exactly what Medicare.gov says it is for.
Treat the rating as one column in the comparison, next to the network, the drug list and the costs. It is a real signal, published on a schedule, and it answers a general question rather than a personal one.
What is the 5-star special enrollment period?
The 5-star Special Enrollment Period lets you switch to a Medicare Advantage plan, Medicare drug plan or Medicare Cost Plan rated 5 stars, when one is available in your area. It can be used only once between December 8 and November 30 the following year.
Medicare.gov states the same window a second way, keyed to living in the service area of a 5-star plan: one time between December 8 of the year before the plan year and November 30 of the plan year.
Two traps ride with the switch, and both are about drugs. Moving from a Medicare Advantage plan that includes drug coverage to a stand-alone Medicare drug plan disenrolls you from the Medicare Advantage plan, including the health benefit, and returns you to Original Medicare.
Moving instead to a 5-star Medicare Advantage plan that has no drug coverage may cost you drug coverage until the next enrollment opportunity, and may bring a Part D late enrollment penalty.
Availability is the gate on all of it. The switch requires a 5-star plan of the type you want in your area, and for a Medicare drug plan Medicare.gov states the condition outright: you can only switch if one is available where you live.
What this means for you
A star rating is a dated government measurement, not a review, and the date is the part to hold onto. A 2026 rating was published in the fall before 2026 began, from member surveys and from reports by the plans and their providers gathered earlier still.
The two ends of the scale are the ones that do something. A 5-star plan in your area opens a one-time switch between December 8 and November 30. A plan under 3 stars for three straight years lets you leave at any time you are in it.
Read the rating beside the network and the drug list, never instead of them. For checking whether your own doctor is in a plan, read the network article in this cluster. For what separates the plan types the ratings are attached to, read the plan types article.
FAQ
What does a 5-star rating actually mean?
It means Medicare rated that plan's overall performance at the top of a 1 to 5 scale, and Medicare.gov's own word for it is excellent.
The rating is built from member satisfaction surveys, information from the plans, and information from health care providers, so it mixes what members reported about their experience with what the plan and its providers reported about operations.
Plans at that level are marked with a special icon on Medicare.gov, which is why a 5-star plan is easy to spot without opening a table.
Two things it does not mean: it is not a promise about any one member's care, and it is not permanent. Medicare updates the ratings each fall for the following year, and a rating can change from one year to the next.
Can I use the 5-star Special Enrollment Period more than once?
No. Medicare.gov states the limit plainly: this Special Enrollment Period can be used only once between December 8 and November 30 the following year.
The same page states the window a second way for people living in the service area of a 5-star plan, as one time between December 8 of the year before the plan year and November 30 of the plan year.
Two conditions sit on top of the timing. A plan with a 5-star rating has to be available in your area, and for a stand-alone Medicare drug plan Medicare.gov repeats that condition on its own.
So the practical order is to check that a 5-star plan of the type you want exists where you live, then check where you are in the window.
What happens to my drug coverage if I use the 5-star switch?
It depends entirely on what you switch into, and both risky moves are named on Medicare.gov. If you move from a Medicare Advantage plan that includes drug coverage to a stand-alone Medicare drug plan, you will be disenrolled from the Medicare Advantage plan, including the health benefit, and returned to Original Medicare for your health services.
If you move from a Medicare Advantage plan that has drug coverage to a 5-star Medicare Advantage plan that does not, you may lose drug coverage, wait until your next enrollment opportunity to get it back, and may have to pay a Part D late enrollment penalty.
Both outcomes follow from the type of plan chosen, not from the star rating, which is why the plan type is worth confirming before the switch.
What can I do if my plan has been rated under 3 stars?
A star rating of less than 3 stars for the last 3 years opens its own Special Enrollment Period. Medicare.gov's answer for that situation is to switch to another Medicare Advantage plan or Medicare drug plan, and its answer on timing is unusually generous: any time you are in the low performing plan.
There is no enrollment window to wait for and no single date to hit. Two details are worth reading carefully. The rule counts three consecutive years, so a single weak year does not open the door.
And the door stays open only while you remain in that plan, which means the right disappears the moment you use it. Anyone unsure whether their plan qualifies can check the rating on Medicare.gov.
Where does CMS publish the star ratings data?
On one page, the CMS Part C and D Performance Data page, and it holds far more than the headline number. For the 2026 ratings that page carries a fact sheet, the full star ratings data tables, technical notes, display measures and a categorical adjustment index measure supplement.
It also carries forward-looking material, including the 2027 Star Ratings Measures, which name what the next ratings year will measure. The archive runs back to plan ratings for 2007, one release per year.
Most of these are PDF and ZIP downloads rather than web pages, which is worth knowing before setting out: the summary you can read in a browser lives on Medicare.gov, and the working data lives on the CMS page.
Is a 5-star plan available everywhere?
Not necessarily, and Medicare.gov writes the condition into the rule rather than leaving it implied. The 5-star Special Enrollment Period applies if a Medicare Advantage plan, Medicare drug plan or Medicare Cost Plan with a 5-star rating is available in your area.
For Medicare drug plans the page repeats that you can only switch to a 5-star plan if one is available where you live. Plan availability is decided by insurance companies, which can offer a plan statewide or only in certain counties, and which can decide each year whether to join or leave Medicare.
Together those two facts mean the 5-star door is real but local, and whether it is open at all is a question about your own county.
