The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a memo to Medicare Advantage organizations on Monday notifying them of the enhancements to the 2026 Medicare Plan Finder and Medicare.gov website.
In addition to the provider information, the Medicare Plan Finder and Medicare website will also feature an expanded display of Medicare Advantage supplemental benefits and a new Medicare AI-powered drug search tool.
The current Medicare Plan Finder doesn’t include data on Medicare Advantage provider networks, which CMS acknowledges has meant Medicare beneficiaries have had to seek other sources of information to determine if their preferred doctors and hospitals are in-network for a particular plan. To fix this issue, CMS said it will incorporate the Medicare Advantage provider director information into the plan finder.
The agency also announced it has partnered with Sunfire Matrix, which maintains a cloud-based platform that offers data and tools for managing enrollment into health plans. SunFire will provide the in-network provider and facility data for individual plans offered by local coordinated care plan contracts, regional preferred provider organization contracts, medical savings account contracts, and private fee-for-service contracts.
However, there is a subset of Medicare Advantage plans not accounted for in SunFire’s dataset. CMS is asking Medicare Advantage organizations to supply their provider data by August 29 to SunFire to display on the plan finder. This will provide Medicare beneficiaries with simplified access to a complete set of Medicare Advantage provider directory data and ensure that plans have an equal opportunity for their data to appear in the plan finder.
CMS also wants to provide more information in the extra benefits section of the plan finder. Beginning October 1, the agency will update the 30 supplemental benefits in the “more extra benefits” section of the plan finder to include in-network and out-of-network cost sharing and messaging on prior authorization requirements and plan limits.
Meanwhile, the agency is in the process of developing a Medicare AI-powered drug search to be hosted on Medicare.gov. This feature will offer Medicare beneficiaries a new, separate, and distinct user experience to get personalized drug pricing information outside of the Medicare Plan Finder.
The drug search will allow users to enter their drug information and get personalized cost comparisons across pharmacies in their area to find the lowest cost for them. CMS expects to launch this new tool in fall 2025.