When Good Isn't Good Enough: The New Rules of 2027 Medicare Advantage Star Ratings

What can Medicare Advantage plans learn from the 2027 Star Ratings, and which strategies should they carry forward, rethink or change? In this episode of Bright Spots in Healthcare, leaders from Essence HealthCare, MyTruAdvantage, Doctors HealthCare Plans and Icario examine what drove the latest Star Ratings results, where traditional approaches are falling short, and how plans can improve performance with limited resources. The discussion gets practical: why strong performance across most measures may not protect an overall rating, how plans are improving medication adherence, what it takes to address the barriers behind low member engagement, and how better data, provider relationships and organizational accountability can drive sustainable improvement. Download the Episode Resources Episode Guide Key takeaways and practical lessons from the conversation: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Episode-Guide-Bright-Spots-in-Health-Care-Icario-October-15-2026.pdf Key Insights Summary Guest takeaways, discussion highlights and practical strategies for health plan leaders: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Key-Insights-Summary-Bright-Spots-10-15-2026.docx.pdf Featured Medicare Advantage Leaders

• Christina Latterell-Loganimoce, Vice President, Quality and Star Strategy, Essence HealthCare
• Austin Brey, Vice President, Medicare Products, MyTruAdvantage
• Stacey Friedman, Senior Director, Quality & HEDIS/Stars, Doctors HealthCare Plans, Inc.
• Cory Busse, Vice President of Strategy, Icario

What You'll Learn

This conversation explores how Medicare Advantage plans are responding to the 2027 Star Ratings and rethinking the strategies, partnerships and operating models behind quality performance, including:

• How Essence HealthCare is building on its history of strong Stars performance by strengthening analytics, aligning teams and adapting its strategy as the Stars program evolves.

• How MyTruAdvantage improved Part D performance from 2.5 to 4 Stars through more timely data, provider collaboration and targeted outreach

• How Doctors HealthCare Plans achieved five stars across all three medication adherence measures by addressing barriers such as transportation and pharmacy access

• How Icario's work with CenterWell Pharmacy illustrates the value of understanding member needs and making it easier for members to take action

• How executive governance, forecasting tools and cross-functional collaboration can strengthen Stars accountability

• Why stronger provider relationships and ongoing care-gap management can improve performance as membership grows

• How plans can evaluate vendor investments, measure results and redirect limited resources toward approaches that deliver value

Featured Resource: The Yes Ladder During the discussion, Cory Busse of Icario explained how the Yes Ladder uses a series of small, easy decisions to help members take a larger action. Learn more about the behavioral science concept and how it works.

https://psychotricks.com/yes-ladder/

About Icario

Icario helps health plans turn member insights into meaningful action by combining behavioral science, technology and personalized engagement.

Its approach helps Medicare Advantage plans better understand what motivates members, identify barriers to care and make it easier for members to take the next step.

Through its expanded collaboration with Google, Icario is also bringing AI-powered personalization into member engagement, helping plans connect insights with action and get more value from their engagement investments.

Learn more: https://icariohealth.com/

Connect With Icario

To explore how Icario can help your team improve member engagement, address barriers to care and make better use of engagement investments, contact Nicole Roberts at nroberts@brightspotsventures.com to arrange a conversation with the Icario team..

Panelist Bios

https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/events/2027-star-ratings-what-worked-what-didnt-and-what-ma-plans-do-next/

About Bright Spots in Healthcare

Bright Spots in Healthcare brings together health plan, health system and healthcare innovation leaders to share practical examples of what is working — and how others can apply and scale those ideas.

Bright Spots Ventures creates healthcare content, executive communities, private peer discussions and go-to-market programs designed to accelerate meaningful change.

Learn more: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com/

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