Medicare Advantage Star Ratings in Utah: 2026 Guide

National distribution of 2026 overall Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage drug contracts. Source: CMS 2026 Star Ratings fact sheet, Table 1 — cms.gov.

Three patterns in the fact sheet are useful when you read a Utah plan's stars. Five-star contracts are rare and concentrated: 18 of 516 MA-PD contracts, holding about 2.4% of enrollees, and most of them are regional plans in Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas, North Carolina and upstate New York. Non-profit organizations earn four or more stars more often than for-profit ones (about 50% versus 36% of MA-PD contracts). And experience counts: contracts with 10 or more years in the program are more likely to hold four or more stars than contracts under five years old. Only 4 contracts nationwide carry the low-performing icon for 2026, down from six the year before.

How are the Medicare Advantage contracts serving Utah rated?

The CMS 2026 landscape file lists 55 distinct Medicare Advantage plans in Utah under 15 contracts; 38 of those plans are open to anyone with Parts A and B, and the rest are Special Needs Plans for people with Medicaid, a qualifying chronic condition or a nursing-home level of care. Here is every contract with its 2026 overall, Part C and Part D stars. Remember the rating belongs to the contract: the 4 contracts at 4.5 stars include one that only offers an institutional Special Needs Plan, and three of the general-population contracts are PPOs from the same three national insurers that also hold lower-rated contracts here.

All Medicare Advantage contracts with at least one plan priced in a Utah county for plan year 2026, sorted by 2026 overall Star Rating. Star ratings are contract-level. “Not rated” = new or too new to be measured. Source: CMS CY2026 Medicare Advantage and Part D Landscape file, Utah rows, accessed via the Ambrose Insurance Brain — cms.gov landscape; CMS Part C and D Performance Data — cms.gov. This table is public CMS data, not a recommendation; we do not offer every plan available in your area.

Two things stand out for Utah readers. The only Utah-based organization on the list, Intermountain Health's Select Health contract, holds a 4.0 Part C rating but a 3.0 Part D rating, which pulls its overall to 3.5; if you use Intermountain doctors, that is worth reading measure by measure on Plan Finder rather than stopping at the headline number. And the two unrated contracts are not warnings: Devoted Health entered Utah for 2026 with five PPO plans in Salt Lake, Davis, Tooele, Summit, Wasatch and Morgan counties and simply has no Utah track record for CMS to score yet.

How many 4-star-or-better plans are available in your county?

Because ratings follow contracts and contracts choose their counties, the mix of well-rated plans differs across Utah. Counting only plans open to the general Medicare population, Salt Lake and Davis counties each have 31 plans, 14 of them rated 4 stars or higher and 10 rated 4.5. Utah County has 28 plans with 14 at 4 stars or higher. Washington County, home to St. George and 48,039 Medicare beneficiaries, has the thinnest well-rated shelf among the large counties: 17 plans, 6 of them rated 4 or higher and 4 rated 4.5, meaning 35.3% of the plans a St. George retiree can pick from carry four or more stars, against 45.2% in Salt Lake County. At the far end, Wayne County has a single general-population plan (rated 3.5) and Daggett County has none at all, only Dual Special Needs Plans.

Share of non-Special-Needs Medicare Advantage plans offered in each county whose contract holds a 2026 overall rating of 4.0 or higher, twelve selected counties. Source: CMS CY2026 Landscape file, Utah rows — cms.gov.

All 29 Utah counties, sorted by Medicare enrollment. “Plans open to all” excludes Special Needs Plans; a plan is counted once per county even if it is sold in many. The statewide plan and contract counts include Special Needs Plan contracts. Sources: CMS CY2026 Landscape file — cms.gov; CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment, May 2026 — data.cms.gov.

Can you use the 5-star Special Enrollment Period in Utah?

Not this plan year. Medicare.gov's rule is specific: if you “live in the service area of one or more Medicare Advantage Plans or Medicare drug plans with an overall quality rating of 5 stars,” you can join a 5-star Medicare Advantage plan, Cost plan or drug plan “one time between December 8 of the year before the plan year and November 30 of the plan year.” The 21 contracts that earned five stars for 2026 are listed by name in CMS's fact sheet, and none of them offers a plan in any Utah county in the 2026 landscape. There is no 5-star plan to switch to, so the window never opens here. The same is true of the 5-star stand-alone drug plans; the two nationally are regional plans in New York and Pennsylvania.

If the 2027 ratings, due in October, put a contract that serves Utah at five stars, the window would open December 8, 2026 and run through November 30, 2027, usable once. Medicare.gov attaches two cautions worth memorizing now. If you leave a Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage for a 5-star stand-alone drug plan, you are disenrolled from the Advantage plan “including the health benefit” and returned to Original Medicare, without any guaranteed right to buy a Medigap policy unless another rule gives you one (see our Utah Medigap birthday-rule guide). And if you move to a 5-star Advantage plan that has no drug coverage, you may lose drug coverage until your next enrollment window and owe a Part D late enrollment penalty.

The mirror-image rule also exists: anyone in a plan that has been rated below 3 stars for the last three years can leave it at any time. No contract in Utah carries CMS's low-performing icon for 2026, so that window is closed here too. For 2026 that leaves Utah retirees with the ordinary calendar: Open Enrollment October 15 to December 7 for January 1 changes, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period January 1 to March 31 for one change if you are already in an Advantage plan, and the ordinary Special Enrollment Periods for moves, loss of coverage and plan non-renewals.

How are Utah's stand-alone Part D plans rated?

If you are on Original Medicare with a Medigap policy, your star rating question is about a stand-alone drug plan, and the answer for 2026 is sobering statewide and nationally. Ten stand-alone Part D plans are sold in Utah for 2026, all statewide. Their Part D ratings run from 2.0 to 3.5 stars; none reaches 4. That matches the national picture, where the enrollment-weighted average Part D rating is 3.01 and only about 2% of drug-plan enrollees sit in a contract rated 4 or higher.

All stand-alone Part D plans available in Utah for 2026, sorted by premium. Ratings are contract-level Part D ratings. Source: CMS CY2026 Landscape file, Utah rows — cms.gov. Public CMS data, not a recommendation; we do not offer every plan available in your area.

For a drug plan, the stars are less decisive than the math. Twelve measures, three of them about medication adherence, cannot tell you whether your specific prescriptions are on the formulary at a preferred pharmacy near you, and that is what drives your cost under the 2026 Part D out-of-pocket cap. Enter your drugs on Plan Finder first; then, between two plans that cover them at similar cost, let the rating break the tie.

How should you use star ratings when you compare plans this fall?

1. Treat the stars as a filter, not a verdict. A 4.5-star contract tells you the organization performed well on CMS's measures in 2024. It does not tell you whether your doctors are in the network or your drugs are covered. Check those first, then compare ratings among the plans that pass.
2. Open the measure detail. On Plan Finder, click a plan's star rating to see its score on each measure. Weigh the measures that fit your health: adherence and blood-sugar measures if you manage a chronic condition, appointment access and appeals timeliness if you have had trouble getting care approved.
3. Know which contract you are looking at. The same insurer sells plans under different contracts with different stars in Utah. The contract ID is in the plan name (H2001-047, for example); the first five characters are what the rating attaches to.
4. Do not penalize a new plan for a blank rating. “Not rated” means not yet measured. Judge it on network, benefits and the parent company's record elsewhere.
5. Check the 2027 ratings before you decide. They are expected on Plan Finder in October 2026, weeks before the December 7 deadline. Ratings can move a half-star or more in a year; the fact sheet calls year-over-year change “normal and expected.”
6. Read your Annual Notice of Change alongside the stars. A contract's 2026 rating feeds its 2027 bonus payment, and bonus money often shows up as richer or poorer benefits in the plan's ANOC, which arrives by September 30. Our guide to reading your 2027 ANOC walks through it.
7. Get free, unbiased help. Utah SHIP counselors at (877) 424-4640 or (801) 538-3910 can pull up every plan's ratings and costs with you at no charge.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• CMS — 2026 Medicare Advantage and Part D Star Ratings fact sheet, November 18, 2025 (ratings published on Plan Finder October 9, 2025; 43/33/12 measures; Table 1 MA-PD distribution, 40% of contracts and 64% of enrollees at 4+ stars, average 3.98; Table 2 PDP distribution, average 3.01; 21 five-star contracts and 4 low-performing contracts in Appendix Tables A1–A4; non-profit vs. for-profit and years-in-program findings): cms.gov — 2026 Star Ratings fact sheet (PDF)
• CMS — 2026 Star Ratings Measures and Weights (33 Part C and 12 Part D measures, weights, 2026 methodology changes): cms.gov — measures list (PDF)
• CMS — Part C and D Performance Data (annual Star Ratings data files and technical notes): cms.gov — performance data
• CMS — CY2026 Medicare Advantage and Part D Landscape file, Utah rows (every contract and plan priced by county with contract-level 2026 overall, Part C and Part D star ratings, premiums and deductibles), accessed via the Ambrose Insurance Brain: cms.gov — landscape files
• Medicare.gov — Special Enrollment Periods (5-star SEP: once between December 8 of the year before the plan year and November 30 of the plan year; drug-coverage cautions; low-performing plan SEP for plans below 3 stars for the last 3 years): medicare.gov — Special Enrollment Periods
• Medicare.gov — Understanding Medicare Advantage & Medicare Drug Plan Enrollment Periods, CMS Product No. 11219 (Open Enrollment October 15 to December 7; Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment January 1 to March 31; 5-star and low-performer SEP tables): medicare.gov — publication 11219 (PDF)
• Medicare.gov — Medicare & You 2027 handbook (“Medicare uses ratings from 1–5 stars to help you compare plans based on quality and performance”; 5-star Special Enrollment Period): medicare.gov — Medicare & You (PDF)
• CMS — Medicare Monthly Enrollment, Utah state and county rows, May 2026 (total beneficiaries; Medicare Advantage and other): data.cms.gov — monthly enrollment
• Utah Insurance Department — Medicare / Medigap / Medicare Advantage consumer page (Utah SHIP (877) 424-4640 or (801) 538-3910): insurance.utah.gov

About this article. Written by the Utah Retirement Income Data Desk and reviewed by Brian Penner, Retirement income & long-term care planner. Educational only — not medical, financial, or legal advice. Star ratings, measure weights, national distributions and enrollment-period rules are taken from CMS's 2026 Star Ratings fact sheet and measures list, Medicare.gov and the Medicare & You 2027 handbook as of September 13, 2026; the Utah contract, plan and county figures are our own tabulation of the CMS CY2026 landscape file and CMS's May 2026 Medicare Monthly Enrollment file, and plan availability and ratings can change for 2027 when CMS publishes the new ratings and landscape in October 2026. Contract and plan names are public CMS data shown for comparison and are not endorsements or recommendations; check current ratings on Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE before you act. Utah Retirement Income is a licensed independent insurance agency (NPN 16493717) and is not a government agency; we are not connected with or endorsed by Medicare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Social Security Administration, or any government program, and nothing here should be read as an endorsement by them. We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area; please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE, or your State Health Insurance Assistance Program — in Utah, the Utah SHIP — to get information on all of your options. A $0-premium plan is not free; you still pay Part B premiums and cost-sharing. If you call or text us, you consent to be contacted at the number you provide about your options; message and data rates may apply, and you can opt out at any time by replying STOP.