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Nicholas Saraceno is Editor of Pharmaceutical Commerce. He can be reached at nsaraceno@mjhlifesciences.com.
Aetna, Devoted Health, and UnitedHealth headline the list best Medicare Advantage insurers for next year, while Centene and Humana lead the pack in Part D prescription drug coverage.
US News & World Report, a media company specializing in healthcare rankings and consumer advice, revealed its top Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D companies for 2026, based on their national performance among a multitude of consumer-value award categories.
The yearly assessment is intended to serve as a “one-stop-shop” for beneficiaries that qualify for Medicare. Recipients want to be able to easily compare all of the companies that provide health insurance—along with prescription drug plans—in order to fully do their due diligence when it comes to what they may need in a healthcare plan.
The list is well timed, given that Medicare’s annual open enrollment began on Oct. 15, running until Dec. 7. This allows ample time for coverage to take effect Jan. 1 of next year.
“With health insurance companies adjusting their plan portfolios and coverage areas in 2026 amid an increasingly dynamic health care market, consumers need clear and trustworthy information about the companies providing their health insurance and the features of the plans they offer,” said Sumita Singh, executive vice president and general manager of Health at US News. “US News’ 2026 ratings provide a comprehensive, data-driven overview of the top insurance companies, empowering Medicare beneficiaries to evaluate quality and research their options during the enrollment window.”
When it came down to determining the 2026 national Medicare Advantage and Part D company winners, US News computed insurers' ratings with the help of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) data for each insurance company’s Medicare Advantage health plan that was assessed.
With the help of 37 CMS quality measures, each was given a weight proportional to how significance it was to consumers. The ratings for each insurance company were determined by averaging the results of its plans, with greater weight given to those with the highest enrollment numbers.
Overall, the best Medicare insurance companies of 2026 were divided by Medicare Advantage and Part D. The companies receiving that honor included:
US News computed insurers' ratings for three Medicare Advantage award categories: Screening & Prevention, Care Continuity, Highest Satisfaction, and one specific Medicare Part D award category: Highest Satisfaction.
In terms of additional insight on what the methodology was for selecting these companies, the ratings are gathered from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which the federal agency that administers the Medicare program.
It’s important to note that the latest edition offers a snapshot into the best Medicare companies in each state as well.
“Every year, CMS evaluates each Medicare Advantage contract on dozens of quality measures. A Medicare Advantage contract is a Medicare Advantage plan or a group of related Medicare Advantage plans offered by a single insurance company,” explained Ben Harder and C.J. Trent-Gurbuz in an article2 for US News. For each contract, CMS also issues an overall rating, ranging from 1 star to 5 stars, with 5 being the best.
“In profiling individual Medicare Advantage plans in its directory this year, US News included the CMS star rating for the contract to which that plan belongs; all plans belonging to a given contract received identical ratings because CMS does not make plan-level quality data available … Weighting each measure took into account measure score compression historically across star levels, how meaningful the measure was to consumers and attribution to health plan action.”
You can view last year’s rankings here.
References
1. US News & World Report Announces the 2026 Best Insurance Companies for Medicare Advantage and Part D. US News & World Report. October 17, 2025. Accessed October 17, 2025. https://www.usnews.com/info/blogs/press-room/articles/2025-10-17/u-s-news-world-report-announces-the-2026-best-insurance-companies-for-medicare-advantage-and-part-d
2. Harder B, Trent-Gurbuz CJ. How US News Picked the 2026 Best Insurance Companies for Medicare. US News & World Report. October 16, 2025. Accessed October 17, 2024. https://health.usnews.com/medicare/articles/how-us-news-picked-the-best-insurance-companies-for-medicare