HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has declared the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles County a public health emergency.
The Jan. 10 declaration grants healthcare providers in California greater flexibility to care for Medicare and Medicaid patients with emergency health needs during the crisis. HHS has waived certain HIPAA privacy rules, staffing and operational requirements, and expanded access to services for affected individuals.
HHS' Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response said it's also prepared to deploy any first responders, medical equipment and supplies to California, as needed.
"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," Mr. Becerra said in a Jan. 10 news release. "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."
Six more updates:
1. The blazes, which began Jan. 7, have killed at least 24 people, destroyed thousands of buildings and burned through tens of thousands of acres across the county, according to The New York Times. The Palisades fire has already become the most destructive in LA's history. As of Jan. 13, at 8 a.m. CST, the three largest fires raging in the county were 14% to 89% contained, according to California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. At least two medical clinics have burned down. The Los Angeles Times reported that Providence's St. John's Physician Partners clinic in the Pacific Palisades was destroyed. AltaMed Health Services also confirmed it lost a clinic in Pasadena to the fires, though everyone was evacuated safely, according to a Jan. 8 post on X.
2. Wildfires and related utility outages have disrupted healthcare services across the county. Major systems that have temporarily closed clinics include UCLA Health; Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente; Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health and Cedars-Sinai. Some have also temporarily postponed elective procedures and rescheduled appointments. High call volumes and road closures are complicating emergency services teams' efforts to respond to the crisis and transport patients and supplies. In addition, at least 700 people have been evacuated from nursing homes and other post-acute facilities, according to the California Department of Public Health.
3. The fire has created major operational challenges for hospitals. Many healthcare workers have lost their homes or been forced to evacuate, making it difficult to sustain adequate staffing levels, according to the LA Times. Several hospitals located near the Palisades fire — including Providence St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica and USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale — were prepared to evacuate but ultimately determined it was unnecessary.
"All hospitals in close proximity to the fires remain on high alert and are prepared to evacuate if conditions worsen," the Hospital Association of Southern California said in a statement to the LA Times earlier this week. As of Jan. 14, hospitals in the county were operating normally, though numerous clinics remain closed.
4. Beyond the fires' immediate threats, heavy smoke and poor air quality could pose serious health consequences for populations, experts warned. When wildfires spread through urban areas, they create particularly harmful air conditions by releasing toxic pollutants from burning human-made materials such as plastics. These air pollutants can worsen symptoms for people with airway diseases, such as asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cedars-Sinai said its pulmonologists are expanding their clinic schedules to meet the anticipated demand for care.
5. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts forecast that the fires will cause $20 billion in insured losses, according to Bloomberg. This figure does not include healthcare costs related to health complications from the smoke, which could be far-reaching beyond LA County. Annually, wildfire smoke could lead to 4,000 premature deaths and $36 billion in annual losses, according to a 2023 study published in Science of the Total Environment.
6. The California Department of Insurance is requiring payers to submit emergency plans detailing how they will ensure members' continued access to health services during the wildfires, including for prescription drugs.
"With so many Angelenos displaced by these wildfires, the last thing they should be worried about is access to necessary health care and whether they can get their prescriptions," California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a Jan. 9 news release. "We are doing everything within our power to ensure the health and safety of wildfire survivors and are calling on health insurance companies to guarantee access to care for our most vulnerable during these extraordinarily challenging times."