SAFE through Medicare Act

Key Points

• This bill would create a new Medicare benefit covering home equipment that helps medically vulnerable people survive extreme weather, power outages, and other disasters. Examples include heat pumps, solar batteries for electric medical equipment, and cold storage for temperature-sensitive medications.
• Medicare would cover the full cost of these items with no out-of-pocket expense for patients. Payment would equal 100% of the actual charge or a fee schedule amount set by the Secretary, whichever is lower.
• To qualify, a person must be determined "medically at-risk" based on criteria developed by the HHS Secretary working with NIH, CMS, and NOAA. The criteria would consider local climate risks, disaster history, and a patient's medical dependence on equipment or medications.
• Eligibility decisions would factor in geography-specific climate risks, a region's 20-year disaster history or predicted future risk, and the patient's chronic conditions, disabilities, and reliance on power-dependent medical devices.
• The benefit would take effect on or after January 1, 2027, giving federal agencies time to build the eligibility process and fee schedule before coverage begins.