ASPR's Response to the California Wildfires

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Increasing Access to Health Care with Increased Flexibility and Data

On January 10, 2025, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared a Public Health Emergency (PHE) for California to address the health impacts of the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles County. The declaration followed the President's major disaster declaration and gives the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) health care providers and suppliers greater flexibility in meeting emergency health needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

The Public Health Emergency Declaration gives the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) health care providers and suppliers greater flexibility in meeting emergency health needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

In addition, HHS emPOWER program is available to identify the number of Medicare beneficiaries in affected zips codes who rely on electricity-dependent durable medical equipment and certain healthcare services, such as dialysis, oxygen tank, or home health, to help anticipate, plan for, and respond to the needs of at-risk citizens in potentially impacted areas.

HHS has waived sanctions and penalties for violations of certain provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule against hospitals in the emergency areas. The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued bulletins explaining how limited waivers apply and the duration.

Supporting Behavioral Health

The HHS Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) offers free crisis counseling through the Disaster Distress Helpline. This toll-free, multilingual, crisis support service is available 24/7 to all residents in the U.S. and its territories who are experiencing emotional distress related to natural or human-caused disasters.

To connect with a trained counselor, call or text 1-800-985-5990. Spanish speakers can press “2” for bilingual support. Callers also can connect with counselors in more than 100 other languages via third-party interpretation services by indicating their preferred language to the responding counselor.

Technical Assistance

We encourage communities in all wildfire prone areas to use ASPR TRACIE's resources to plan to protect health during a wildfire.