I 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7272 
To amend titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act to promote 
the ability of individuals entitled to benefits under part A or enrolled 
under part B of the Medicare program and individuals enrolled under 
a State plan under the Medicaid program to access their personal medical 
claim data, including their providers, prescriptions, tests, and diagnoses, 
through a mobile health record application of the individual’s choosing, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 12, 2018 
Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana (for herself and Ms. CLARKE of New York) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy 
and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act 
to promote the ability of individuals entitled to benefits 
under part A or enrolled under part B of the Medicare 
program and individuals enrolled under a State plan 
under the Medicaid program to access their personal 
medical claim data, including their providers, prescrip-
tions, tests, and diagnoses, through a mobile health 
record application of the individual’s choosing, and for 
other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mobile Health Record 
Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Serv-
ices’ (CMS) Blue Button 2.0 Program was an-
nounced in April 2018 to build upon CMS’s Blue 
Button Program. 
(2) The Blue Button 2.0 Program provides 4 
years of Medicare part A, B, and D data for 53 mil-
lion Medicare beneficiaries through an Application 
Programming Interface (API). The data contains a 
variety of information including, but not limited to, 
a list of a patient’s providers, prescriptions, tests, 
and diagnoses. The Blue Button 2.0 Program re-
quires the use of CMS-approved applications to 
allow beneficiaries to download coded data. 
(3) Mobile applications currently exist that have 
the power to decode the Medicare Blue Button data 
and present it in a user-friendly, easy-to-read and 
understand format. Prior to Blue Button 2.0, the 
Blue Button Program allowed beneficiaries to 
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download such data, but the information was not de-
coded into the easy-to-read and understand format 
that a mobile application provides. 
(4) The Blue Button 2.0 Program was created 
to empower patients with the use of these applica-
tions, but additional steps need to be taken in order 
to ensure the program reaches its intended purpose 
of providing patients with their personal medical 
claim information to prevent harmful medical errors 
and reducing redundant spending. 
(5) According to a study published by Johns 
Hopkins University in 2016, more than 250,000 
deaths per year are due to medical error, making it 
the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States. 
Further, millions of dollars are wasted on duplicative 
or unnecessary tests and procedures. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ 
Blue Button 2.0 Program has the potential to positively 
influence patient behavior, improve patient safety and 
health outcomes, and help reduce unnecessary health care 
expenditures, but action needs to be taken to help the ini-
tiative meet the program’s goals. 
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SEC. 3. PROMOTING PATIENT ACCESS TO PERSONAL MED-
ICAL CLAIM INFORMATION, INCLUDING A PA-
TIENT’S PROVIDERS, PRESCRIPTIONS, TESTS, 
AND DIAGNOSES, THROUGH THE USE OF MO-
BILE HEALTH RECORD APPLICATIONS. 
(a) MEDICARE.—Title XVIII of the Social Security 
Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.) is amended by adding at 
the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 1899C. MOBILE ACCESS TO PERSONAL MEDICAL IN-
FORMATION PROGRAM. 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than January 1, 
2020, the Secretary shall establish a program to be 
known as the ‘Mobile Access to Personal Medical In-
formation Program’ (in this section referred to as 
the ‘Program’) for purposes of creating a developer- 
friendly, standards-based API that enables individ-
uals entitled to benefits under part A or enrolled 
under part B to connect their claims data to the ap-
plications, services, and research programs they 
trust while allowing such individuals to retain full 
control over how the copy of the data they receive 
can be used and by whom. The Program shall pro-
vide such an individual access to the personal med-
ical claim information of the individual through a 
mobile health record application of the individual’s 
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