Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson, MD, MPH, State Health Director, Chief Medical Officer, Office of the Secretary, from the NC Dept. of Health and Human Services has reached out to many organizations with valuable information regarding Hurricane Florence that may be helpful to individuals throughout the state:
- Food and Nutrition Program – We have been granted flexibility in our Food and Nutrition Program that allows people to buy hot meals with their EBT card and allows more time for someone to report loss of food and be eligible for replacement. We are pursuing other flexibilities and can share those updates with you.
- WIC – We have been approved to make an automatic issuance of one month of benefits onto the eWIC cards of WIC participants whose WIC offices have been closed or are otherwise impacted by the storm.
- Volunteer Opportunities – We have collected in one place ways various health professionals can register to volunteer their service if needed.
A message from Dave Richard, Deputy Secretary, NC Medicaid, Division of Health Benefits, from the NC Department of Health and Human Services:
“Like you, the DHHS is committed to help those affected by Hurricane Florence. At NC Medicaid, we are focused on creating opportunities for people on Medicaid to access—and health care professionals to deliver—Medicaid and NC Health Choice care and services more quickly. We have secured authority from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to move forward with many interim Medicaid policies adjustments, and are continuing to work with our federal and state partners to seek additional remedies.
(DHHS has created) two fact sheets, a more technical one for health care professionals and another plain language version for beneficiaries. We are asking for your assistance in sharing this information with your members, and encouraging locations providing care to post for beneficiaries.
We have also launched a NC Medicaid Hurricane Florence Response & Recovery webpage on the NC Medicaid website, that will continue to be updated as policies continue to be enhanced to assist recovery efforts, and to share other helpful information.”
