Medicare's Blue Button & Blue Button 2.0

What's the Medicare Blue Button?

MyMedicare.gov's Blue Button makes it easy for you to download your personal health information to a file. Having access to your information can help you make more informed decisions about your health care. Blue Button is safe, secure, reliable, and easy to use. By getting your information through Blue Button, you can:

  • Download and save a file of your personal health information on your computer or other device, including your Part A, Part B, and Part D claims.
  • Print or email the information to share with others after you’ve saved the file.
  • Import your saved file into other computer-based personal health management tools.

What's Blue Button 2.0?

Medicare has released a new data service that makes it easy for you to share your Part A, Part B, and Part D claim information with a growing list of authorized applications, services, and research programs. You authorize each application individually and you can return to MyMedicare.gov at anytime to change the way an application uses your information.

Once you authorize sharing of your information with an application (by using your MyMedicare.gov account information), you can use that application to view your past and current Medicare claims.

For Medicare Advantage Plans, only Part D information is available through this service. If you have a Medicare Advantage Plan, check with your plan to see if they offer a similar service to Blue Button 2.0. Medicare keeps a list of authorized applications.

How do I download & share my health information?

  • Log into MyMedicare.gov.
  • Click your username in the top right corner.
  • Select "Get a Report of My Data" from the drop-down menu that appears.
  • Select the information you want to download, and select "Create Report".
  • Save the file to your computer as either a PDF or a TXT file.
Note

If you use an app to download your Blue Button data, the above steps may happen automatically.

Why should I download & share my health information?

By using Medicare's Blue Button and Blue Button 2.0 to download and share your personal health information, you:

  • Get control over your health information
  • Make it easy to share your health information with doctors, caregivers, or anyone you choose
  • Get help managing and improving your health through a wide range of apps and other computer-based services

How do I protect my information? 

Since you control access to your health information, it's your responsibility to take steps to keep it safe. Treat your personal and health information the same way you'd treat your banking or other confidential information. Here are some important things to remember:

  • Keep your log in information private and secure.

  • You may want to download your information to a CD, flash drive or mobile app. We recommend you use encrypted and password-protected flash drives, CDs, and mobile apps.

  • If you want to send your information by email, encrypt the message.
  • Keep paper copies in a safe and secure place that you can control.
  • Blue Button and Blue Button 2.0 are optional services. You decide whether you want to share your personal information with others.
  • Medicare reviews all of the organizations that want to connect to Blue Button 2.0. But, it's up to you to choose the apps or other services you want to use.

Call us at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227)

if:

  • You think your information may have been downloaded by someone else
  • You want to remove an app's or service's access to your information