openapi: 3.0.3
info:
title: CMS Blue Button 2.0 Coverage Metadata API
description: Blue Button 2.0 is the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) patient-facing API that lets Medicare beneficiaries share their Parts A, B, and D claims data with applications they authorize. The v2 API is FHIR R4 (4.0.1) and conforms to the CARIN Blue Button Implementation Guide (CARIN Consumer Directed Payer Data Exchange, CDPDE). It exposes three FHIR resource types - ExplanationOfBenefit (claims), Patient (demographics), and Coverage (Part A/B/D enrollment) - plus a capability statement and an OpenID Connect userinfo endpoint. Every request is scoped to the single beneficiary who authorized the application through the OAuth 2.0 authorization-code flow (PKCE S256 required) on Medicare.gov. The sandbox at sandbox.bluebutton.cms.gov mirrors production with synthetic data for 10,000 enrollees.
version: '2.0'
contact:
name: CMS Blue Button 2.0
url: https://bluebutton.cms.gov
termsOfService: https://bluebutton.cms.gov/terms/
servers:
- url: https://api.bluebutton.cms.gov/v2/fhir
description: Production (approved applications only)
- url: https://sandbox.bluebutton.cms.gov/v2/fhir
description: Sandbox (synthetic Medicare enrollee data, self-serve)
security:
- oauth2:
- patient/ExplanationOfBenefit.read
- patient/Patient.read
- patient/Coverage.read
tags:
- name: Metadata
description: FHIR capability statement.
paths:
/metadata:
get:
operationId: getCapabilityStatement
tags:
- Metadata
summary: Retrieve the FHIR capability statement
description: Returns the server CapabilityStatement (FHIR 4.0.1) describing the supported resources, interactions, and search parameters. Does not require authorization.
security: []
responses:
'200':
description: A CapabilityStatement resource.
content:
application/fhir+json:
schema:
type: object
description: FHIR CapabilityStatement resource.
components:
securitySchemes:
oauth2:
type: oauth2
description: OAuth 2.0 authorization-code flow with mandatory PKCE (S256 only). Beneficiaries log in with their Medicare.gov credentials and choose whether to share demographic data. Access tokens expire after 1 hour. One-time-use refresh tokens are issued only to approved 13-month and research application types. Sandbox uses https://sandbox.bluebutton.cms.gov/v2/o/authorize/ and https://sandbox.bluebutton.cms.gov/v2/o/token/.
flows:
authorizationCode:
authorizationUrl: https://api.bluebutton.cms.gov/v2/o/authorize/
tokenUrl: https://api.bluebutton.cms.gov/v2/o/token/
refreshUrl: https://api.bluebutton.cms.gov/v2/o/token/
scopes:
patient/Patient.read: Read the beneficiary's Patient demographic resource.
patient/ExplanationOfBenefit.read: Read the beneficiary's Medicare claims.
patient/Coverage.read: Read the beneficiary's Medicare coverage.
openid: OpenID Connect authentication.
profile: Access the userinfo profile endpoint.
launch/patient: Receive the patient FHIR id in the token response.