Data Overview: ASPR, in partnership with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), provide de-identified and aggregated Medicare beneficiary claims data at the state/territory, county, and ZIP code levels in the HHS emPOWER Map and this public HHS emPOWER REST Service. The REST Service includes aggregated data from the Medicare Fee-For-Service (Parts A&B) and Medicare Advantage (Part C) Programs for beneficiaries who rely on electricity-dependent durable medical equipment (DME) and cardiac implantable devices.

Data includes the following DME and devices: Cardiac devices (left, right, and bi-ventricular assistive devices (LVAD, RVAD, BIVAD) and total artificial hearts (TAH)), ventilators (invasive, non-invasive and oscillating vests), bi-level positive airway pressure device (BiPAP), oxygen concentrator, enteral feeding tube, intravenous (IV) infusion pump, suction pump, end-stage renal disease (ESRD) at-home dialysis, motorized wheelchair or scooter, and electric bed.

Purpose: Over 3 million Medicare beneficiaries rely on electricity-dependent medical equipment, such as ventilators, to live independently in their homes. Severe weather and other emergencies, especially those with long power outages, can be life-threatening for these individuals. The HHS emPOWER Map and public REST Service give every public health official, emergency manager, hospital, first responder, electric company, and community member the power to discover the electricity-dependent Medicare population in their state/territory, county, and ZIP Code.

Data Source: The REST Service’s data is developed from Medicare Fee-For-Service (Part A & B) (>33M 65+, blind, ESRD [dialysis], dual-eligible, disabled [adults and children]) and Medicare Advantage (Part C) (>21M 65+, blind, ESRD [dialysis], dual-eligible, disabled [adults and children]) beneficiary administrative claims data. This data does not include individuals that are only enrolled in a State Medicaid Program. Note that Medicare DME are subject to insurance claim reimbursement caps (e.g. rental caps) that differ by type, so the DME may have different “look-back” periods (e.g. ventilators are 13 months and oxygen concentrators are 36 months).

ZIP Code Aggregation: Some ZIP Codes do not have specific geospatial boundary data (e.g., P.O. Box ZIP Codes). To capture the complete population data, the HHS emPOWER Program identified the larger boundary ZIP Code (Parent) within which the non-boundary ZIP Code (Child) resides. The totals are added together and displayed under the parent ZIP Code.

Approved Data Uses: The public HHS emPOWER REST Service is approved for use by all partners and is intended to be used to help inform and support emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities in all communities.

Privacy Protections: Protecting the privacy of Medicare beneficiaries is an essential priority for the HHS emPOWER Program. Therefore, all personally identifiable information are removed from the data and numerous de-identification methods are applied to significantly minimize, if not completely mitigate, any potential for deduction of small cells or re-identification risk. For example, any cell size found between the range of 1 and 10 is masked and shown as 11.