Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Top Contracts
August 13, 2026
As of July 1, 2026, after a period of slow growth and declines, stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs) reported gains of over 1.9 million net new enrollees, an 8.2% increase since July 1, 2025. The gain was driven by employer-based retiree Medicare Advantage plans separating prescription drugs from medical benefits, due to rising costs. Consolidation and market exits have resulted in the top three contracts covering 65.5% of the PDP market, up from 60.9% as of July 1, 2025. The top three PDP contracts are offered by Centene, under the market name of WellCare (S4802); CVS Group, under the market name Silverscript Insurance (S5601); and Humana Insurance (S5884). Humana’s contract bumped UnitedHealthcare’s (S5921) out of the number 3 spot for 2026.
- Centene Corporation’s WellCare PDP contract S4802 includes 102 plan options and covers over 8.8 million people nationwide, as of 7/1/2026, with many of its enrollees in California, Florida, and Texas. It has an overall Star Rating of 3.5, and monthly premiums range from $0 to $122.
- CVS’s Silverscript Insurance contract S5601, includes 33 plan options and covers about 3.9 million people across the U.S., with its largest enrollment residing in the New York, California, and Pennsylvania markets. It has an overall Star Rating of 3.0, an improvement from 2.5 in 2025, and monthly premiums range from $14.70 to $116.
- Humana Insurance’s contract S5884, with a gain of more than 1.5 million members moved into the third spot in 2026. Humana’s largest gains occurred in North Carolina, Alabama, and Illinois; with North Carolina, Texas and Illinois as the contracts’ leading states. The contract includes 102 plan options and has an overall Star Rating of 3.0, with monthly premiums ranging from $0 to $173.60. For contract S5884, Humana’s most expensive plan, S5884-217, has over 12,000 enrollees; while its zero-dollar premium plans have close to 1.2 million total enrollees.
About this Data
All information in this analysis was sourced from data reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and aggregated by Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) in its Medicare Benefits Analyzer™ product. Medicare Benefits Analyzer™ is a time-saving database for easy comparative analysis of Medicare premiums, co-pays, and benefits. Benefits and Star Quality Ratings data is collected and organized from the Medicare.gov website and is updated within days of the new benefits data being posted by CMS, usually during the first and second weeks of October, with periodic data refreshes. Interactive web tables present: Medicare Advantage (MA) and Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) benefits, premiums, co-pays, prescription (Rx) drug tiers & cost estimates by Plan, State & County; Star Quality Ratings data for measuring relative quality of MA & Part D plans; Drug tier costs by state presents standard and preferred pharmacy cost-sharing by drug tier, purchase type and supply for all MA & Part D plans; Plan Finder profiles by state and plan with screen-shots of benefit details for easy look-up and reference; Medicare Advantage & PDP enrollment figures per plan and current Summary Star Ratings; and user-friendly web interface with easy-to-navigate tables, all downloadable to Excel.
About Mark Farrah Associates (MFA)
Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry. Our product portfolio includes Health Coverage Portal™, County Health Coverage™, 5500 Employer Health plus, ASO Employer Health plus, Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, and Health Plans USA™. For more information about these products, refer to the product pages and brochures available under the Our Products section of the website (www.markfarrah.com) or call 724-338-4100.
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