Department of Health Response to Medicaid Reimbursement and Policy Issues Related to Hurricane Irene

The Department of Health has been receiving numerous inquiries regarding how the State plans to address reimbursement and policy issues related to disaster measures taken in response to Hurricane Irene.

Discussions are ongoing with the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to solicit guidance on these issues, including situations where patients are being evacuated to other facilities and how to appropriately compensate both the transferring and receiving facility. In addition, the Department is reviewing its policies that were implemented as a result of the 911 Tragedy for applicability in this response.

Lastly, the Department will be consulting with the various trade associations on an ongoing basis and will develop and communicate standard responses to questions where policy guidance is needed. These responses will be posted on the Department's website and will also be provided to the trade associations for communication to their members as soon as possible.

The Department will continue to closely monitor the situation and will fairly compensate facilities for costs related to their efforts to ensure patient safety.