Medicare up to the minute

The new year is underway. Check out these Medicare reminders for 2026.

Read time: 3 minutes

Attention, Medicare beneficiaries:

The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B enrollees is $202.90 for 2026, up from $185 in 2025.
The annual deductible for all Medicare Part B beneficiaries is $283 in 2026, up from $257 in 2025.
The Medicare Part A inpatient hospital deductible beneficiaries pay if admitted to the hospital is $1,736 in 2026, up from $1,676 in 2025.
The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase of 2.8% for 2026 means the average monthly retirement benefit will go up by about $56 per month starting in January.

What’s new in 2026?

Make sure you’re up to date with any new coverages to your Medicare benefits.

Here’s the list of what’s new in Medicare this year from “What’s new & important?” on page 2 of the “Medicare & You 2026” handbook:

Capping what you pay for prescription drugs

If you have Medicare drug coverage (Part D), your yearly out-of-pocket Part D drugs will be capped at $2,100 in 2026. Once you reach this cap, you won’t have to pay a copayment or coinsurance for covered Part D drugs for the rest of the calendar year (page 83 in the handbook).

More drug cost savings for you

Learn how Medicare prescription drug prices are changing in 2026 (page 81 in the handbook).

Meeting your health care needs

Medicare now pays for Advanced Primary Care Management services each month where your doctor or other health care provider coordinates and tailors care to your needs. Providers that offer these services must give you 24/7 access to your care team or provider and more (page 31 in the handbook).

Early detection matters

Medicare covers a wide range of colorectal cancer screenings, including computed tomography (CT) colonography. Getting screened is an important part of cancer prevention and early detection (page 36 in the handbook).

Help Medicare fight fraud and cut waste

Protect yourself from fraud and medical identity theft by checking your Medicare Summary Notices (MSNs), and your receipts and statements, for errors or services you didn’t get. If you think your Medicare Number has been used fraudulently, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-42271-800-633-4227). TTY users can call 1-877-486-20481-877-486-2048 (pages 105-106 in the handbook).

Go digital with Medicare

You can get Medicare resources at your fingertips! Start by logging into (or creating) your secure Medicare.gov account. There, you can manage your prescriptions, get your Medicare Summary Notices (MSNs) electronically, switch to the electronic version of the handbook, and more. You can also sign up for emails on the latest Medicare news. There’s never been a better time to switch from paper to digital.

Is this covered?

To learn if Medicare covers your test, item or service, check out this to see what’s covered no matter where you live. If your item, service or test isn’t listed, talk with your doctor.

Attention, Medicare Advantage enrollees:

The Medicare Advantage open enrollment is going on now through March 31.

If you’re enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan, now’s the time you can switch to a different Medicare Advantage Plan or switch to traditional Medicare (and join a separate Medicare drug plan). Note: You can only switch plans once during this time.

This period applies only to Medicare Advantage enrollees.