HHS to Provide Additional Funding to Hospitals Treating Haiti Earthquake Survivors - February 17, 2010

In a February 1 news release, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it was activating additional components of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), allowing hospitals to receive federal reimbursement to treat critically injured survivors of the January 12 Haiti earthquake. Under the program, accredited hospitals—which are mostly urban and have more than 100 beds—enter into voluntary agreements with the NDMS to commit a certain number of beds to NDMS survivors. Those hospitals that do admit NDMS patients are guaranteed reimbursement at 110 percent of Medicare rates. HHS has set up a medical review board in Haiti to make the decision of which patients to send to the U.S. At the moment, reimbursement is only available for patients sent to coordinating center areas in Tampa, FL and Atlanta, GA. Members who have additional questions about the program may contact Xiaoyi Huang at xhuang@naph.org or 202-585-0127.