Five-star Medicare Advantage plans represent the highest quality level in private Medicare coverage. However, only a handful of plans received this mark in 2025.
To improve transparency and ensure that beneficiaries have access to quality healthcare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) evaluates Medicare Advantage (Part C) plans and Part D prescription drug plans on various criteria and assigns them a star rating.
Five stars is the highest overall score a plan can earn. These plans offer superior benefits, outcomes, and satisfaction.
This article discusses how the ratings system works, what criteria the CMS judges them on, and what sets them apart.
Medicare Advantage plans are an alternative to Original Medicare. These plans are required to offer the same coverage as Original Medicare but often include additional benefits, such as vision, dental, and hearing care.
Medicare Advantage plans also typically include drug coverage, which Original Medicare enrollees must sign up for separately.
There are different types of Medicare Advantage plans that have different rules around provider access, billing, cost, and care. These include:
Whereas Original Medicare coverage works anywhere in the United States, Medicare Advantage plans are typically tied to regional provider networks.
To help Medicare beneficiaries determine which plan best suits their needs, the CMS evaluates plans on their performance and quality and assigns each one a star rating.
Star ratings can be a useful tool in helping those shopping for coverage understand their options.
While they are not a foolproof way of gauging whether a plan is right for an individual, they serve as a simple way of conveying how a plan performs in key areas such as patient care, member satisfaction, and customer service.
The CMS reevaluates Medicare Advantage contracts annually and issues new ratings for the coming year in October.
A score of 5 stars indicates the highest quality. In 2025, only 1.3% of plans received a 5-star overall rating. Their relative rarity means that not all people shopping for Medicare Advantage will have access to a 5-star plan in their area.
CMS assesses Medicare Advantage plans on quality measures across five domains:
- Staying Healthy: Screening, Tests, and Vaccines
- Managing Chronic (Long-Term) Conditions
- Member Experience with Health Plan
- Member Complaints and Changes in the Health Plan’s Performance
- Health Plan Customer Service
The CMS rates plans on unique performance and quality measures within these five domains.
The CMS assesses Medicare Advantage plans that do not include drug coverage against 30 measures and those that include drug coverage against up to 42 measures.
These measures include:
- breast cancer screening
- colorectal cancer screening
- annual flu vaccination
- physical activity monitoring
- osteoporosis management in women who have had a fracture
- reduction of fall risk
- statin therapy for patients with cardiovascular disease
- transitions of care
- care coordination
- complaints about the plan
- members choosing to leave the plan
- timely process of appeals
- reviewing appeals decisions
The CMS gathers data for its ratings from four main sources:
- data collected by CMS contractors
- CMS administrative data
- health and drug plan data
- survey of enrollees
The organization offers a detailed technical breakdown of its rating methodology in its Medicare 2025 Part C & D Star Ratings Technical Notes.
In 2025, seven Medicare Advantage contracts with prescription drug benefits have an overall rating of 5 stars. These are:
| Contract name | Parent organization | Enrollment in October 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Highmark Choice Company | Highmark Health | 55,015 |
| Leon Health, Inc. | LMC Family Holdings, LLC | 38,877 |
| Network Health Insurance Corporation | Network Health, Inc. | 77,798 |
| Alignment Health Plan of North Carolina, Inc. | Alignment Healthcare USA, LLC | 6,212 |
| Healthsun Health Plans, Inc. | Elevance Health, Inc. | 56,202 |
| MCS Advantage, Inc. | MHH Healthcare, L.P. | 284,055 |
| Optimum Healthcare, Inc. | Elevance Health, Inc. | 62,883 |
These insurance carriers offer 5-star plans across plan types, including HMOs, PPOs, HMO-POS plans, and SNPs.
Five-star plans are not available in all states and counties. Some of the states that offer these plans include:
- Florida
- North Carolina
- Nevada
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
For a full breakdown of all the Medicare Advantage plans available in counties across the United States and their corresponding star ratings, see the CY2025 Landscape document, which you can download from the CMS website.
A person can find available plans in their area and view their star ratings on Medicare.gov.
The CMS rates Medicare Advantage plans on a 5-point scale across various quality and performance metrics. Earning 5 stars is rare. In 2025, only seven Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage achieved this mark.
Five-star Medicare Advantage plans offer members superior healthcare quality and outcomes, according to data collected by the CMS. They also deliver high quality customer service, improved access to care, and greater member satisfaction.
While a high rating is helpful when deciding on a healthcare plan, a person’s individual needs should be the key factor in the decision making process.