On September 27, 2022 and October 3, 2022, CMS announced additional resources and flexibilities available for Florida and South Carolina in response to the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

Following the President’s declaration of a state of emergency in both Florida and South Carolina, HHS subsequently determined that a public health emergency existed and made available the following resources and waivers to ensure that hospitals and other facilities are able to continue to operate without interruption and provide access to care to those impacted by Hurricane Ian:

• Waivers. CMS waivers are available to providers in Florida and South Carolina who have been impacted by Hurricane Ian. Those emergency waivers can be found here, and relate to flexibilities such as a replacement of prescription refills that may have been damaged and waiver of the face-to-face requirement for certain durable medical equipment products, among others.
• Medicaid and CHIP Support. CMS has developed an inventory of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) flexibilities and authorities to support Medicaid and CHIP operations. The disaster toolkit can be found here and the Medicaid and CHIP flexibilities and authorities here.
• Dialysis Care. CMS has activated its Kidney Community Emergency Response (KCER) Program and is working with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Networks 6 (Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina) and 7 (Florida) to assess the status of dialysis facilities in potentially impacted areas. Further information regarding KCER is available here.

The resources and flexibilities provided by CMS for Florida and South Carolina are addressed on CMS’s website here and here, respectively.