Medicare expands caregiver access to health info, adds fraud protections

What it does

This bill requires Medicare to run an outreach and education campaign informing beneficiaries and their family caregivers that they can authorize a caregiver to access their Medicare health information by phone through 1-800-MEDICARE. The bill mandates the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop best practices to protect against fraud, train call center staff, and make the authorization form and educational materials available in multiple languages and across multiple platforms (websites, social media, Medicare Advantage plans). Beneficiaries and caregivers benefit by gaining clearer access to information; the public benefits from fraud-prevention guidance.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is a public-health and consumer-protection measure: expanding beneficiary and caregiver access to Medicare information while building fraud-prevention safeguards. It is not a tax measure, appropriation, or industry carve-out.

What the text implies

• The bill delegates fraud-protection best practices to the HHS Office of Inspector General, which may create new compliance burdens on providers and call-center staff if recommendations are extensive.
• The authorization form (CMS-10106) and its successors will become a new administrative touchpoint; implementation quality and caregiver uptake will depend on CMS execution and marketing effectiveness.
• Feedback mechanisms (surveys) may generate data on caregiver experiences that could inform future policy, but the bill does not mandate action on that feedback.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Medicare beneficiaries and their family caregivers gain a clearer, more accessible pathway to health information and fraud protections. The bill imposes no restrictions on citizens' rights or remedies; it only expands access and transparency through education and fraud-prevention guidance.

Named in the bill

Medicare, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), State health insurance assistance programs, Administration for Community Living, 1-800-MEDICARE, Medicare Advantage plans, Recognize, Assist, Include, Support, and Engage Family Caregivers Act of 2017

Where it stands

5 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 2 Republicans.

• Dec 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Dec 11, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $5,300,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 104 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Thom Tillis, the sponsor, reported $973,475 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• AARP — $5,300,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.