The 2027 Medicare Advantage numbers came out on September 28. CMS says average premiums will fall 16.5%, to $12 a month, and that dental, vision and hearing benefits should stay stable, according to its 2027 announcement. Open enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, so there's not much runway.
Brokers who've seen the new plan designs are less upbeat. A Leerink analyst note, built on broker commentary and reported by Axios, calls 2027 "another year of broad-based industry benefit reductions." Common moves include dropping Part B givebacks, cutting major dental benefits and raising specialist copays. A HealthScape Advisors survey of leaders at 35 plans found nearly 70% expected their 2027 benefit packages to be less rich.
The extras that were already shrinking
The big three held up. Between 2025 and 2026, dental, vision and hearing access didn't move, and 91% of individual-plan enrollees were in plans with a fitness benefit, according to KFF's analysis of CMS benefit files. The smaller extras didn't.
| Benefit | Share of individual-plan enrollees in plans offering the benefit | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2026 | |
| Over-the-counter allowance | 79% | 68% |
| Meals | 70% | 65% |
| Remote access technology | 49% | 43% |
| Transportation | 28% | 22% |
| Bathroom safety devices | 32% | 21% |
KFF also points out something every plan leader should notice: CMS collects data on how many enrollees use these benefits, but that data isn't available to researchers or the public.
How many members actually use their extras
The best public answer comes from the Commonwealth Fund's 2024 Value of Medicare Survey, which asked 1,846 Medicare Advantage enrollees what they'd used in the past year.
Most members didn't touch even the core benefits:
Meanwhile, 89% said these benefits were important to them, according to the Commonwealth Fund. So members value the extras and skip them anyway. A later Commonwealth Fund survey asked why. Among enrollees who didn't plan to use some benefits, most said they didn't need them. But more than one in five said they didn't know all their benefits or didn't know how to use them, and lower-income members were far more likely to say they didn't know how.
That second group is fixable. Nobody's going to use a benefit they can't find.
The notice that was supposed to fix it is gone
CMS saw this coming. Starting in 2025, plans were supposed to mail members a personalized mid-year notice listing the benefits they hadn't touched, with instructions on how to use them. CMS delayed the requirement in September 2025, and the 2027 final rule rescinded it outright.
Members wanted it. Eight in 10 told the Commonwealth Fund they'd like a notice about unused benefits, and most preferred email.
The Commonwealth Fund also notes that CMS now expects plans to report supplemental benefit use through encounter data, starting with 2024 benefits. So someone will eventually see the gap, whether or not a notice goes out.
How to get members using unused supplemental benefits
Plans don't need a federal rule to do what the rule was trying to do. Four moves we'd make before January:
What human follow-up adds
The third move is the one most plans skip, because it costs staff time. It's also where engagement changes most.
Per our efficacy report, program completion in a 300-participant controlled study ran:
The study measured program completion rather than benefit use, but the pattern carries over: people follow through when a person checks in and technology keeps the contact going between check-ins.
It's the same follow-up capacity the new Stars depression measure will demand, which we've covered in our look at Star Ratings 2027.
See how Avidon supports member engagement for health plans.
