Georgia Medicare Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) Guide 2026

If you already have Medicare in Georgia, the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) is your yearly chance to change plans. It runs from October 15 through December 7, and any change you make takes effect January 1 of the following year. AEP is not for signing up for Medicare the first time; it is the window for people already enrolled to switch Medicare Advantage or Part D plans as costs, drug formularies, and networks change for the new year.

During AEP, a Georgia Medicare beneficiary can switch between Original Medicare and a Medicare Advantage plan, change from one Medicare Advantage plan to another, change Part D drug plans, add a standalone Part D plan to Original Medicare, or drop Part D coverage.

Free, unbiased help is available statewide. GeorgiaCares, Georgia's State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), provides one-on-one AEP plan comparison counseling at 1-866-552-4464 (option 4), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; its counselors do not sell insurance and take no money from insurers. Georgia also has a Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP), one of the programs the federal Administration for Community Living funds in all 50 states to help beneficiaries prevent, detect, and report suspected health care fraud, errors, and abuse. The national SMP locator finds the Georgia program.

The window: October 15 through December 7 every year; changes take effect January 1.
What you can change: switch between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage, change Medicare Advantage plans, change or add a Part D drug plan, or drop Part D.
Medigap warning: leaving Medicare Advantage during AEP does not, by itself, give you a guaranteed-issue right to buy a Medigap policy in Georgia. Outside a federal trial right or your one-time Medigap Open Enrollment Period, insurers may use medical underwriting.
Free Georgia help: GeorgiaCares SHIP at 1-866-552-4464 offers certified counselors who do not sell plans.

How the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period Works in Georgia

AEP exists so people already in Medicare can re-evaluate their plan once a year. The window is October 15 through December 7, and any election you make takes effect January 1 of the next year. The Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollment windows are set under the Social Security Act and run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); the operative rule for a Georgia reader is the calendar itself, not the statute numbers.

A point worth fixing in your mind: AEP is for plan changes by current beneficiaries. It is not how you first enroll in Medicare. Initial entry happens through the Initial Enrollment Period around your 65th birthday, or through the General Enrollment Period for people who missed it.

Read your Annual Notice of Change every fall

The most important document a current Medicare Advantage or Part D enrollee receives each year is the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC). CMS requires every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan to send each current enrollee its ANOC so it arrives by September 30, and to post it on the plan's website by October 15, before AEP opens. The ANOC summarizes, in plain language, every material change taking effect January 1: premium and deductible changes, cost-sharing changes, formulary changes (drugs added, removed, moved tiers, or newly subject to prior authorization or step therapy), provider and pharmacy network changes, service-area changes, and changes to extra benefits such as dental, vision, or hearing.

A beneficiary who sets the ANOC aside unread can find on January 1 that they are paying a higher premium for a plan that no longer covers their primary care doctor or a drug they depend on. If the ANOC shows a change that no longer fits, AEP is the window to compare alternatives.

Use the Medicare Plan Finder

The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov/plan-compare is the federal government's free, unbiased comparison tool. CMS refreshes it with the coming year's plan data before AEP opens, so by October 15 every plan available for January 1 enrollment is in the tool.

A beneficiary who enters their actual medications, their actual pharmacy, and their actual providers can see the total estimated annual cost of each plan available in their county, not just the monthly premium. GeorgiaCares SHIP counselors use the Plan Finder as their main AEP tool; a beneficiary who calls in October or November typically receives a one-on-one walkthrough comparing a handful of plans matched to their own prescriptions and doctors, with no sales pressure.

Check the Star Ratings

CMS publishes Medicare Advantage and Part D Star Ratings each fall, on a 1-to-5 scale where five stars is the highest quality. The ratings appear on the Plan Finder alongside benefits and costs, and they change every year, so AEP is the time to check whether your current plan's rating has slipped. Plans rated 5.0 stars also carry a special enrollment period that lets a beneficiary switch into a 5-star plan once during the year, outside AEP.

Marketing rules and fraud protection

The CMS Medicare Communications and Marketing Guidelines govern what plans and their agents may say and do. Plans and agents may not make unsolicited contact, may not use misleading benefit claims, must disclose that a Medicare Advantage plan is not Original Medicare, and may not imply that plan benefits are paid by Medicare rather than by the plan. A beneficiary who receives misleading AEP marketing should hang up and call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), and can also take it to Georgia's Senior Medicare Patrol, found through the national SMP locator.

What You Can Change During the Annual Enrollment Period

During AEP, a Georgia beneficiary can make any one of six changes. Each takes effect January 1.

Change	What happens January 1	Watch out for
Original Medicare to Medicare Advantage	The Medicare Advantage plan becomes your primary coverage; a standalone Part D plan ends if the new plan includes drugs	A Medigap policy does not cancel automatically; call your insurer
Medicare Advantage back to Original Medicare	Original Medicare resumes; add a standalone Part D plan to keep drug coverage	No automatic Medigap guaranteed-issue right in Georgia
One Medicare Advantage plan to another	The new plan begins; the old one ends automatically	Confirm your doctors and drugs are covered by the new plan
One Part D plan to another	The new drug plan begins; the old one ends automatically	Usually driven by a formulary or premium change
Add a Part D plan to Original Medicare	Drug coverage begins	A late penalty may apply if you went 63+ days without creditable coverage
Drop Part D entirely	Drug coverage ends	Generally inadvisable without other creditable coverage

Two of these carry traps worth a closer look: leaving Medicare Advantage for Original Medicare (the Medigap underwriting trap) and adding or dropping Part D (the late-penalty trap). Both are covered below.

Switching From Medicare Advantage to Original Medicare: the Medigap Trap

The single most expensive AEP mistake is assuming you can leave Medicare Advantage, return to Original Medicare, and freely buy a Medigap policy to fill the gaps. In Georgia, that is usually not true.

Georgia follows the federal Medigap rule. Your guaranteed-issue Medigap Open Enrollment Period is the six months that begin the month you are both 65 or older and enrolled in Medicare Part B; during that window insurers must sell you any plan they offer at the standard rate, regardless of health. After it closes, Georgia does not add an annual "birthday rule" or other state guaranteed-issue window, so an insurer may use medical underwriting and can decline you or charge more based on your health.

Federal law does provide a 12-month trial right: if you joined Medicare Advantage when you were first eligible for Medicare at 65 and switch to Original Medicare within that first year, you have a guaranteed-issue right to buy any Medigap policy sold in Georgia. To use it, you must apply within a window that runs as early as 60 days before your Medicare Advantage coverage ends and no later than 63 days after it ends. Outside that trial right (and outside your one-time Medigap Open Enrollment Period), switching from Medicare Advantage back to Original Medicare does not by itself guarantee Medigap acceptance.

The practical sequence for a Georgia beneficiary who wants Medigap: apply for the Medigap policy first, before disenrolling from Medicare Advantage, so you know you are accepted before you give up your current coverage.

Adding or Dropping Part D: the Late-Penalty Trap

AEP plan changes do not, by themselves, create a new late enrollment penalty. Switching Medicare Advantage plans or Part D plans creates no new penalty, and any penalty you already pay simply continues. The trap is at the edges, when you add Part D for the first time or drop it.

If you were eligible for Part D earlier and went 63 or more continuous days without Part D or other creditable drug coverage, adding a plan during AEP triggers the Part D late enrollment penalty: 1% of the national base beneficiary premium ($38.99 in 2026) for each full month you went without coverage, added to your premium for as long as you have Part D.

Dropping Part D is generally inadvisable unless you have other creditable coverage, because re-enrolling later exposes you to that same penalty and you pay full retail for prescriptions in the meantime. Drug coverage from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB), TRICARE, the Indian Health Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or some retiree plans may count as creditable. Get a written Notice of Creditable Coverage from that payer before you drop Part D.

How AEP Fits With the Other Enrollment Windows

AEP is one of several windows, and for some Georgians it is not even the best lever.

Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (MA OEP), January 1 through March 31. A one-time, one-change window for people already in a Medicare Advantage plan on January 1: switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan, or return to Original Medicare and add a Part D plan. It is the corrective window if your AEP choice does not work out. It is not open to people in Original Medicare.
Initial and General Enrollment Periods. These are for first-time Medicare enrollment, not plan changes. Under the BENES Act of 2020, General Enrollment Period coverage now begins the first day of the month after you sign up, for enrollments on or after January 1, 2023, rather than the old July 1 delay.
Special Enrollment Periods (SEPs). Triggered by events such as moving out of a plan's service area, a plan leaving Medicare, or a federally declared disaster. A 5-star plan in your area also lets you switch once any time between December 8 and November 30. An SEP may let you change sooner than the January 1 AEP effective date.

Special Needs Plans and Dual-Eligible Considerations in Georgia

Some of the most important AEP decisions in Georgia belong to people who have both Medicare and Medicaid. There are three kinds of Special Needs Plan (SNP), each a Medicare Advantage plan limited to a defined group: Dual Eligible SNPs (D-SNPs) for people with both Medicare and Medicaid; Chronic Condition SNPs (C-SNPs) for people with qualifying conditions such as diabetes, chronic heart failure, or end-stage renal disease; and Institutional SNPs (I-SNPs) for people in a nursing facility or needing that level of care.

For a Georgia dual eligible, AEP is the time to weigh a D-SNP, which coordinates Medicare and Medicaid benefits. D-SNPs operating in Georgia for 2026 include plans from UnitedHealthcare Community Plan and CareSource; the Georgia Department of Community Health placed a moratorium on contracting with new D-SNPs effective August 1, 2025, while keeping existing contracts in place.

Dual eligibles and people who receive the Part D Low-Income Subsidy (Extra Help) are not tied to AEP at all for drug-plan changes. Under the CMS Contract Year 2025 final rule (CMS-4205-F), effective January 1, 2025, they get a once-per-month Special Enrollment Period to change a standalone Part D plan, plus a separate monthly window to move into an aligned D-SNP. Still, AEP is a useful time to review a plan if a drug was dropped, a star rating slipped, or a pharmacy network changed.

Changing your Medicare plan during AEP does not affect your Georgia Medicaid. One added benefit for dual eligibles: enrollment in a Georgia Medicare Savings Program activates the State Buy-In, which exempts you from the Part B late enrollment penalty for as long as you stay enrolled. GeorgiaCares can screen you for a Medicare Savings Program and for Extra Help during your AEP visit.

Georgia's Medicare Annual Enrollment Period Marketplace

Georgia is a high-Medicare-Advantage state. As of March 2026, CMS reported 2,019,345 people with Medicare in Georgia, of whom 1,132,430 (more than half) were enrolled in Medicare Advantage and other health plans, while 886,915 remained in Original Medicare. For the 2026 plan year, CMS reports that 180 Medicare Advantage plans are available in Georgia, compared with 178 in 2025, and that the average monthly Medicare Advantage premium changed from $13.76 in 2025 to $6.74 in 2026. Every Medicare-eligible Georgian has access to at least one $0-premium Medicare Advantage plan for 2026. That statewide count is not the number of choices in front of you, though: a separate KFF analysis of the CMS landscape files, which counts only plans open to general enrollment, finds that the average Georgia beneficiary can choose from 47 plans offered by an average of 8 insurers.

That much choice is both a strength and a challenge. It means real competition and meaningful price differences between plans, but also decision paralysis and a wide opening for aggressive marketing, which is where GeorgiaCares SHIP earns its place. Rural Georgia looks different from metro Atlanta: a beneficiary in a small south-Georgia county may find only a handful of Medicare Advantage plans, often with narrow networks, so Original Medicare with a standalone Part D plan can offer broader provider access than a Medicare Advantage plan there.

Free, Unbiased Help: GeorgiaCares SHIP and the Senior Medicare Patrol

GeorgiaCares is Georgia's State Health Insurance Assistance Program, administered by the Georgia Division of Aging Services under the Georgia Department of Human Services. Its counselors provide free, unbiased Medicare counseling, including Medicare Advantage and Part D plan comparison, Extra Help and Medicare Savings Program screening, and help with billing and claims. They do not sell insurance and receive no money from insurers. The statewide line is 1-866-552-4464 (option 4), and AEP is the busiest season, so call early in October rather than near the December 7 deadline.

Georgia's Senior Medicare Patrol teaches beneficiaries to detect, prevent, and report Medicare fraud and abuse. AEP is the peak season for it. Common patterns include unsolicited phone calls offering "free Medicare benefits" or gift cards, door-to-door sales at senior complexes, misleading television ads, and bait-and-switch enrollment. Medicare will never call you uninvited to ask for personal information or to sell you anything, so a Georgia beneficiary should never share a Medicare number, Social Security number, or bank information with an unsolicited caller. If someone calls asking for that information, hang up and call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).

Working AEP Well: a Georgia Checklist

A short, practical run-through of the steps that protect a Georgia beneficiary during AEP, from reading the ANOC to avoiding the Medigap and late-penalty traps covered above.

Read your ANOC when it arrives in the fall; it tells you exactly what is changing in your current plan for January 1.
Use the Medicare Plan Finder with your actual medications, pharmacy, and providers entered, and compare total annual cost, not just the monthly premium.
Check that every drug you take is still on the formulary at a tier you can afford, and that your doctors and hospital are still in network.
Check whether your plan's Star Rating has changed.
If you are switching from Medicare Advantage to Original Medicare and want Medigap, apply for the Medigap policy before you disenroll.
Verify creditable coverage in writing before dropping Part D for another source.
Call GeorgiaCares SHIP at 1-866-552-4464 for free, unbiased help, and call early in October.
Do not share your Medicare number with unsolicited callers or door-to-door agents.
Document your enrollment: get a confirmation number and written confirmation, and note the January 1 effective date.
If your AEP choice turns out wrong, remember the MA OEP (January 1 through March 31) as a one-time correction window for Medicare Advantage enrollees.

Worked Examples

The following scenarios are hypothetical and illustrative; the plan names, premiums, and savings are examples, not quotes. Your own numbers come from the Medicare Plan Finder for your county and your medications.

Example 4: A marketing-fraud call in Bibb County

David, 69, in Macon, gets an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be a "Medicare benefits coordinator" offering "free benefits" and a "$200 grocery card" if he switches plans, who then asks for his Medicare number and bank details. David, suspicious that the caller will not name a plan, hangs up and calls 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to report it, which is what Medicare tells beneficiaries to do when someone calls asking for personal information. He then calls GeorgiaCares SHIP at 1-866-552-4464, option 4, for a legitimate plan review. His Medicare account shows no unauthorized changes.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period in Georgia?

October 15 through December 7 every year. Any plan change you make takes effect January 1 of the following year.

Who can use AEP?

People already enrolled in Medicare. AEP is not for first-time Medicare enrollment; that is the Initial Enrollment Period around age 65, or the General Enrollment Period for those who missed it.

What can I change during AEP?

You can switch between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage, change Medicare Advantage plans, change or add a Part D drug plan, or drop Part D entirely.

Does AEP let me buy a Medigap policy in Georgia?

Not automatically. Leaving Medicare Advantage during AEP does not by itself create a Medigap guaranteed-issue right in Georgia; outside a federal trial right or your one-time Medigap Open Enrollment Period, insurers may use medical underwriting. Apply for Medigap before you disenroll.

What if I miss the December 7 deadline?

You generally must wait for the next AEP, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (January 1 through March 31, for Medicare Advantage enrollees only), or a qualifying Special Enrollment Period.

Learn More

Free Georgia AEP Resources

Medicare: 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), the federal Medicare information line
Social Security Administration: 1-800-772-1213, for initial Medicare enrollment and income-related premium questions
GeorgiaCares SHIP: 1-866-552-4464, free AEP plan comparison counseling
Report suspected fraud: 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), or Georgia's Senior Medicare Patrol via the national SMP locator
Medicare Rights Center: 1-800-333-4114, national Medicare advocacy
Georgia Department of Community Health Member Services: 1-866-211-0950, Medicaid coverage questions
Atlanta Legal Aid Society: 404-377-0701, legal help with Medicare disputes
Eldercare Locator: 1-800-677-1116, federal eldercare referral service
211 Georgia: dial 211, local social services referral
Patient Advocate Foundation: 1-800-532-5274, chronic-disease patient advocacy

Find personalized help comparing Georgia Medicare plans at brevy.com.

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