On 3 April 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Rate Announcement and Call Letter (Call Letter) for calendar year 2018. The Call Letter is part of CMS’s annual process for setting payment rates, performance requirements, and other rules that apply to MA and Part D plans. CMS previously released the 2018 Advance Notice and draft Call Letter on 1 February 2017. Compared to the draft Call Letter, the final Call Letter increased rates for MA plans by a modest amount and adopted other fairly minor tweaks to the MA and Part D programs. Of perhaps greater note, CMS also released a request for information (RFI) asking for new ideas that the agency could implement in the future to promote flexibility in the MA and Part D programs.