U.S. Division of Wellness and Human Companies Secretary Xavier Becerra today declared a General public Health and fitness Unexpected emergency for the point out of South Carolina to handle the wellbeing impacts of Hurricane Ian. The declaration follows President Biden’s unexpected emergency declaration and presents the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), wellness treatment vendors and suppliers, larger adaptability in conference unexpected emergency overall health needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
“Hurricane Ian is carving a damaging path along the southeast, placing the overall health of hundreds of thousands of people at danger,” mentioned Secretary Becerra. “We are operating intently with state, area and tribal well being authorities to secure the overall health of anyone feasible and help you save lives.”
As of today, HHS had more than 300 personnel deployed and obtainable to answer in coordination with condition wellbeing officers, hospitals, and FEMA. These experts include incident management teams and professional medical teams from the Nationwide Disaster Clinical Technique (NDMS), the two component of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), and are gurus in augmenting, bolstering, and supplying relief to hospitals and other healthcare facilities in will need.
These authorities are operating with FEMA, ASPR Regional Unexpected emergency Coordinators (RECs), state overall health authorities, and emergency reaction officials to ascertain what, if any, more federal public health and health-related sources can be deployed to assist in responding to the hurricane.
“We stand ready to assist officials in South Carolina in responding swiftly to the public health and healthcare impacts of this storm,” claimed Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Reaction Dawn O’Connell. “HHS has added pros from NDMS, the U.S. General public Health Company Commissioned Corps, and Centers for Disease Command and Prevention completely ready to offer federal medical treatment and public well being assist if essential.”
HHS also has details accessible from the HHS emPOWER program, a partnership between ASPR and CMS, to assistance public well being unexpected emergency organizing and reaction pursuits. The method provides useful facts on the quantity of Medicare beneficiaries who count on electricity-dependent strong healthcare equipment and specified health care expert services, these kinds of as dialysis, oxygen tank, or residence well being, to aid foresee, program for, and answer to the wants of at-danger citizens in perhaps impacted regions.
In declaring the public health and fitness emergency and authorizing flexibilities for CMS beneficiaries, Secretary Becerra acted in just his authority below the General public Health Provider Act and Social Stability Act. These actions and flexibilities are retroactive to September 25, 2022.
Supplemental facts regarding Public Health and fitness Crisis declarations can be found at https://aspr.hhs.gov/legal/PHE/Pages/default.aspx.