How to read your parent's Medicare Annual Notice of Change
Last reviewed July 2026
Each fall, a Medicare Advantage or Medicare drug plan mails an Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, that lists what is changing in the plan for the coming year. Reading it is how you catch a higher premium, a dropped medication, or a new restriction before it takes effect on January 1.
What the Annual Notice of Change is
If your parent is in a Medicare Advantage plan or a stand-alone Part D drug plan, the plan sends a Plan Annual Notice of Change each fall. According to Medicare.gov, it tells you about upcoming changes in the plan’s coverage, costs, and more that take effect in January, so you can review them and decide whether the plan will still meet your parent’s needs next year.
It usually arrives in September, ahead of the fall enrollment window. It is easy to set aside because it looks like routine mail, but it is the one document that spells out, in writing, exactly what is different about the plan for next year.
The changes to look for
An ANOC compares this year’s plan to next year’s, usually in a side-by-side table. These are the lines that matter most:
- Monthly premium. What the plan charges each month. A change here is the most common and the easiest to miss.
- Deductible. What your parent pays before the plan starts sharing costs.
- Copays and coinsurance. The share of the cost for a doctor visit, a hospital stay, or a prescription.
- The drug list and tiers. Whether a medication your parent takes is still covered, and which tier it sits in. A drug moving to a higher tier, or off the list, changes what it costs at the pharmacy.
- The out-of-pocket maximum. The most your parent could pay in a year before the plan covers the rest.
- Networks. Whether the plan’s doctors and pharmacies are changing. The plan’s own directory is the authority on who is in network.
- Extra benefits. Dental, vision, hearing, or over-the-counter allowances that plans add or trim from year to year.
What to do with what you find
The changes in the notice take effect January 1. The window to act on them, if your parent wants to, is Medicare’s fall Open Enrollment Period, October 15 to December 7. During that window a plan can be changed or confirmed; outside of it, the plan generally stays as it is for the year.
Whether any change is worth acting on is a personal decision. We do not make it for you and we do not compare plans. For personalized, unbiased help, Medicare’s official Plan Finder and your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) are free and independent.
Rather than read all ten pages, upload the notice and we’ll pull out exactly what changed, in plain language, each point cited to the page it came from.
Decode the notice, freeNoticeOfChange explains what your parent’s notice says and organizes the deadlines. We are not insurance agents or advisors, we do not recommend or compare plans, and we are not affiliated with Medicare or CMS.