CMS NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 3, 2019
Contact: CMS Media
Relations
(202) 690-6145 | CMS Media Inquiries
CMS offers comprehensive support for Georgia and South Carolina
with Hurricane Dorian preparation
The Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced efforts underway to support
Georgia and South Carolina in response to Hurricane Dorian. On September 2,
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared public health
emergencies (PHEs) in these states. CMS is working to ensure hospitals and
other facilities can continue operations and provide access to care despite
the effects of Hurricane Dorian. CMS will be waiving certain Medicare,
Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) requirements; creating
special enrollment opportunities for individuals to access healthcare
quickly; and taking steps to ensure dialysis patients obtain critical
life-saving services.
“Our thoughts are with
everyone who is in the path of this powerful and dangerous hurricane and CMS
is doing everything within its authority to provide assistance and relief to
all who are affected,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “We will partner
and coordinate with state, federal, and local officials to make sure that in
the midst of all of the uncertainty a natural disaster can bring, our
beneficiaries will not have to worry about access to healthcare and other
crucial life-saving and sustaining services they may need.”
Below are key
administrative actions CMS will be taking in response to the PHEs declared in
Georgia and South Carolina:
Waivers
and Flexibilities for Hospitals and other Healthcare Facilities: CMS will
be temporarily waiving or modifying certain Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP
requirements. CMS will also issue a number of blanket waivers, listed on the
website below, and the CMS Regional Office will grant other provider-specific
requests for specific types of hospitals and other facilities in Georgia and
South Carolina. These waivers work to provide continued access to care for
beneficiaries. For more information on the waivers CMS has granted, visit: www.cms.gov/emergency.
Special
Enrollment Opportunities for Hurricane Victims: CMS will
make available special enrollment periods for certain Medicare beneficiaries
and certain individuals seeking health plans offered through the Federal
Health Insurance Exchange. This gives people impacted by the hurricane the
opportunity to change their Medicare health and prescription drug plans and
gain access to health coverage on the Exchange if eligible for the special
enrollment period. For more information, please visit:
Disaster
Preparedness Toolkit for State Medicaid Agencies: CMS
developed an inventory of Medicaid and CHIP flexibilities and authorities
available to states in the event of a disaster. For more information and to
access the toolkit, visit: https://www.medicaid.gov/state-resource-center/disaster-response-toolkit/index.html.
Dialysis
Care: CMS is helping patients obtain access to critical
life-saving services. The Kidney Community Emergency Response (KCER) program
has been activated ahead of the storm and is working with the End Stage Renal
Disease (ESRD) Network of Georgia and South Carolina, ESRD NW6, to assess the
status of dialysis facilities in the potentially impacted areas related to
generators, alternate water supplies, education and materials for patients,
and more. They are also assisting patients who have evacuated ahead of the
storm to receive dialysis services in the location to which they are
evacuating. Patients have been educated to have an emergency supply kit on hand
including important personal, medical, and insurance information; contact
information for their facility, the ESRD NW hotline number, and contact
information of those with whom they may stay or for out-of-state contacts in
a water proof bag. They have also been instructed to have on hand supplies to
follow a three-day emergency diet. The ESRD NW6 toll-free hotline is
800-524-7139 and the KCER hotline is 866-901-3773. Additional information is
available on the KCER website www.kcercoalition.com.
During the 2017 and 2018
hurricane seasons, CMS approved special purpose renal dialysis facilities in
several states to furnish dialysis on a short-term basis at designated
locations to serve ESRD patients under emergency circumstances in which there
were limited dialysis resources or access-to-care problems due to the
emergency circumstances.
Medical
equipment and supplies replacements: CMS will
be temporarily suspending certain requirements necessary for Medicare
beneficiaries who have lost or realized damage to their durable medical
equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies as a result of the hurricane.
This will help to make sure that beneficiaries can continue to access the
needed medical equipment and supplies they rely on each day. Medicare
beneficiaries can contact 1-800-MEDICARE
(1-800-633-4227) for assistance.
Suspension
of Enforcement Activities: CMS will suspend current survey
and enforcement activities for healthcare facilities in Georgia and South
Carolina, but will continue to investigate allegations of immediate threat to
patient health and safety.
Ensuring
Access to Care in Medicare Advantage and Part D:
During a public health emergency, Medicare Advantage Organizations and Part D
Plan sponsors must take steps to maintain access to covered benefits for
beneficiaries in affected areas. These steps include allowing Part A/B and
supplemental Part C plan benefits to be furnished at specified non-contracted
facilities and waiving, in full, requirements for gatekeeper referrals where
applicable.
CMS Central Office and the
Regional Offices hosted two Webinars in 2018 regarding Emergency Preparedness
(EP) requirements and provider expectations. One was an all provider training
on 6/19/2018 (over 3,000 providers participated) and the other an
all-surveyor training on 8/14/2018. Both presentations covered the EP Final
Rule which included emergency power supply; 1135 waiver process, Best
Practices & Lessons Learned from past disasters, and Helpful Resources
and more. Both webinars are available at https://surveyortraining.cms.hhs.gov/.
CMS also compiled a
list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and useful national emergency
preparedness resources to assist State Survey Agencies (SAs), their State,
Tribal, Regional, local emergency management partners, and health care
providers to develop effective and robust emergency plans and tool kits to
assure compliance with the EP rules.
The tools can be located at:
Survey & Certification
Group Emergency Preparedness Regulation dated November 2016, Revised
6-1-2017.
CMS Regional Offices have
provided specific Emergency Preparedness information to Medicare providers
and suppliers through meetings, dialogue and presentations. The
regional offices also provide regular technical assistance in Emergency
Preparedness to State Agencies and staff, who, since November 2017, have been
regularly surveying providers and suppliers for compliance with emergency
preparedness regulations.
CMS will continue to work
with all geographic areas impacted by Hurricane Dorian. We encourage
beneficiaries and providers of healthcare services that have been impacted to
seek help by visiting CMS’ emergency webpage (www.cms.gov/emergency).
To find additional
hurricane preparedness and response resources for the health sector and the
latest regarding HHS activities for Hurricane Dorian, please visit: www.phe.gov/dorian.
For more information about
the Department of Health and Human Services’ PHE, please visit:
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Tuesday, September 3, 2019
CMS offers comprehensive support for Georgia and South Carolina with Hurricane Dorian preparation
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