What should the Medicare marketing team be planning now?
The Medicare marketing year is mostly fixed by regulation, and that is what makes it plannable. 15 milestones, each marked with what kind of date it is: statutory windows that do not move, CMS publication cadence where the exact date varies by year, and curated planning milestones that are this site’s view rather than a CMS date. No entry states a future date CMS has not published.
STATUTORYMA Open Enrollment Period opens (January 1 to March 31)
A member enrolled in an MA plan on January 1 may make one change during the window. Retention marketing and switch-recovery campaigns live here, under the same communications rules as AEP.
Marketing read: Plan the January onboarding and retention wave before AEP creative is signed off, not after it.
CADENCEAdvance Notice for the next payment year
CMS publishes proposed payment policy for the following contract year. Proposed, so it is a planning input only.
Marketing read: Read for direction of travel on benefit funding. Nothing here may support an external claim.
CADENCECMS Monthly Enrollment release
The county and contract enrollment files this site is built on. MedicareInsights ingests the county file and re-dates every figure it feeds.
Marketing read: The natural cadence for refreshing market rankings and for measuring whether a campaign moved share.
STATUTORYRate Announcement final for the next payment year
The final payment update, published no later than the first Monday in April. This is the funding backdrop for the benefit design that will be marketed in the autumn.
Marketing read: The first date on which next-year benefit-richness positioning can be planned against real funding.
CADENCEBid submission for the next contract year
Plans submit bids in early June. After submission, the product being marketed in the autumn is fixed.
Marketing read: Benefit differentiation is decided here. Marketing input after bid submission changes the message, not the product.
CURATEDCampaign strategy, budget and market prioritization
The planning window between bid submission and the marketing start date. Market selection, budget allocation, channel mix and the creative brief all land here.
Marketing read: This is where the Marketing Opportunity ranking and the business case are supposed to be used, while the answer can still change the plan.
STATUTORYAnnual Notice of Change delivered to members
Every member receives the ANOC describing next year's premium, benefit and formulary changes.
Marketing read: Members learn what changed before AEP opens. Retention creative should assume the ANOC has been read, and competitors' ANOCs are public switch triggers.
STATUTORYMarketing for the next contract year may begin
The first date plans may market next year's products, ahead of the October 15 enrollment opening.
Marketing read: Two weeks of air cover before enrollment opens. Media weight placed here shapes consideration before the switching window.
CADENCEStar Ratings release for the next plan year
CMS publishes contract-level Star Ratings alongside Plan Finder for the coming plan year.
Marketing read: A star claim is contract-specific and plan-year-specific. Creative carrying a rating has to be re-cleared against the new release.
CADENCELandscape and plan benefit data for the next plan year
CMS publishes the plan landscape and benefit files that make premiums, cost sharing and supplemental benefits comparable across carriers.
Marketing read: The only defensible basis for a competitive benefit comparison. MedicareInsights has not ingested these files yet; the competitive benefit view is waiting on exactly this release.
STATUTORYAnnual Enrollment Period
Any Medicare beneficiary may change MA or Part D coverage for January 1.
Marketing read: The concentrated spend window. Everything upstream in this calendar exists to make these eight weeks work.
STATUTORYDual and LIS special enrollment rights
Dual-eligible and LIS beneficiaries hold enrollment rights outside AEP, on a cadence set by regulation.
Marketing read: D-SNP marketing is not an AEP-shaped business. Budgeting a duals plan on an AEP calendar leaves most of the year unworked.
CURATEDState Medicaid agency contract and integration milestones
D-SNP participation depends on a contract with the state Medicaid agency, and integration category can change with it. Timelines are set state by state, not by CMS.
Marketing read: Confirm the state timeline before committing D-SNP media in that state. This is the most common source of a plan marketed in a market it cannot serve.
GUIDANCEAgent and broker training and testing completion
Annual training and testing gates who may sell for the coming plan year.
Marketing read: Distribution capacity is not available on the day the campaign launches unless certification finished first.
GUIDANCECMS material review path
Marketing and communications materials follow a CMS review path before use, and the path differs by material type. Timelines are set by current CMS requirements, which are amended cycle to cycle.
Marketing read: Build the review path into the production schedule at the brief stage. Confirm the current timelines with compliance rather than reusing last year's assumption.
Cycle anchors already published
| Anchor | Date | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| CY2027 Advance Notice published (comments due Feb 25, 2026) | 2026-01-26 | CADENCE | /policy/whats-changed/ |
| CY2027 Rate Announcement final | 2026-04-06 | CADENCE | /policy/whats-changed/ |
These are actual published dates from the current cycle, carried from the policy tracker. Everything else on the page is a window or a cadence, not a specific future date.
What each status means
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| STATUTORY | Fixed in regulation. The window is the window. |
| CADENCE | CMS publishes on a repeating schedule; the exact date moves year to year and is confirmed when CMS posts it. |
| CURATED | A MedicareInsights planning milestone derived from the CMS dates around it. Not a CMS date. |
So what / Now what Interpretation
The decisions that determine a Medicare marketing year are made months before the campaign runs. Benefit differentiation is fixed at bid submission in June. Market selection and budget are set over the summer. Members learn what changed when the ANOC lands by the end of September, and marketing for the new plan year may not start until October 1. By the time the enrollment window opens on October 15, almost everything that can be changed has been changed.
- Put market selection and the business case in the June to August window, while the answer can still move budget. That is the whole purpose of the opportunity ranking.
- Treat the Star Ratings release as a creative dependency, not a quality event: any rating in the market has to be re-cleared against the new release.
- For D-SNP, plan around the year-round enrollment rights duals hold. An AEP-shaped duals budget leaves most of the calendar unworked.
- Confirm the CMS material review path with compliance at the brief stage rather than assuming last cycle’s timelines still apply.