During Hurricanes Fiona and Ian, HHS Helped Minimize Disruptions to Medical Services at Select Health Care Facilities

Why OIG Did This Review

• In September 2022, Hurricanes Fiona and Ian made landfall as Category 1 and Category 4 hurricanes, respectively, with an estimated $114 billion in damages and 170 deaths.
• More than 70 health care facilities, including hospitals, dialysis centers, and community health centers, in Puerto Rico and Florida experienced evacuations or temporary closures which temporarily disrupted medical services to communities.
• HHS OIG received funding to assess the effectiveness of HHS’s support for community response activities to Hurricanes Fiona and Ian.

What OIG Found

During Hurricane Ian, select hospitals ensured access to medical services, in part, by receiving support from the Administration of Strategic Preparedness and Response’s (ASPR’s) National Disaster Medical System to help with patient surge.

During Hurricanes Fiona and Ian, select dialysis centers took measures that aligned with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) emergency preparedness requirements to ensure that treatments were available and coordinated with the CMS-funded Kidney Community Emergency Response network to share information that helped them reopen in a timely manner.

During Hurricane Fiona, select community health centers coordinated with ASPR-funded Health Care Coalitions to divert patients and advocate for power and water restoration.

What OIG Concludes

Our findings emphasize the importance of health care facility and community preparedness during an emergency. Select facilities and communities in Puerto Rico and Florida leveraged HHS and other resources to minimize disruptions to medical services in the face of Hurricanes Fiona and Ian.