HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra Declares Public Health Emergency for California to Aid Health Care Response to Wildfires

ASPR emergency personnel prepared to augment state and local response efforts

Today, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra declared a Public Health Emergency (PHE) for California to address the health impacts of the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles County.

The declaration follows President Biden’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.

“We will do all we can to assist California officials with responding to the health impacts of the devastating wildfires going on in Los Angeles County,” said Secretary Becerra. “We are working closely with state and local health authorities, as well as our partners across the federal government, and stand ready to provide public health and medical support. My thoughts and prayers are with the people impacted in my home state.”

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is prepared to deploy responders, along with medical equipment and supplies if requested by the state. ASPR TRACIE, our health care emergency preparedness information gateway, has already shared technical resources with California officials and recently issued the latest version of the Exchange, which specifically includes extreme heat, burns and wildfire topic collections. Volunteers from the Long Beach Medical Reserve Corps unit have been mobilized to assist county and city officials.

“ASPR is carefully monitoring hospitals and shelters in Los Angeles County devastated by the wildfires, and we are prepared to meet health care needs as part of the combined federal, state and local response,” said Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell. “Our teams are prepared to go anywhere needed in the state or county, and we have experts ready to support recovery requests.”

The HHS Disaster Distress Helpline is available to provide disaster crisis counseling. Managed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 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.

HHS has made information available from the HHS emPOWER program, a partnership between ASPR and CMS, to support public health emergency planning and response activities. The program provides valuable information on the number of Medicare beneficiaries who rely on electricity-dependent durable medical equipment and certain health care services, such as dialysis, oxygen tanks, or home health care, to help anticipate, plan for, and respond to the needs of at-risk residents in areas impacted by the storm.

HHS has also 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 area. The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a bulletin explaining how this limited waiver applies and its duration. Each waiver includes information on non-discrimination obligations and protections. OCR has information available on how non-discrimination laws apply during an emergency and on HIPAA emergency preparedness, planning, and response including toolkits and checklists for emergency preparedness planners and responders.

In declaring the public health emergency and authorizing flexibilities for CMS providers, suppliers, and beneficiaries, Secretary Becerra acted within his authority under the Public Health Service Act and Social Security Act. These actions and flexibilities are retroactive to January 7, 2025.