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State Health Officials, Hospitals Describe Disruptions, Waivers and Costs After LA Wildfires
Summary
State health officials and hospital leaders told the Assembly Health Committee that the January Southern California wildfires disrupted outpatient care, dialysis and hospital operations and prompted emergency federal waivers and state-level consumer protections.
State health officials and hospital leaders told the Assembly Health Committee on Jan. 7 that the recent Southern California wildfires caused widespread disruption to care delivery and prompted the Department of Health Care Services and health plans to deploy emergency flexibilities.
"The health and well-being of our Medi Cal members is the Department's priority," Michelle Bos (Director, Department of Health Care Services) told the committee. DHCS said it requested 36 separate federal CMS 1135 waivers to preserve access — measures that included waiving prior authorization requirements, enabling care in alternative settings (member homes, mobile clinics, temporary locations), expedited refills of prescriptions and extensions of eligibility renewal timelines for impacted Medi‑Cal members.
Why it matters: Witnesses described immediate operational impacts: clinic closures, canceled elective procedures, missed dialysis sessions and high emergency-room volumes for respiratory, cardiac and behavioral-health complaints. Hospital leaders said staff displacement and shortages strained operations and increased costs.
Insurance-regulator direction and consumer supports Mary Watanabe of the Department of Managed Health Care said that within 48 hours of the governor's emergency proclamation health plans were required to file notices with DMHC about expected disruptions and their response, and that DMHC issued an "all plan" letter directing plans to provide toll-free numbers, prominently post member guidance on websites, suspend prescription refill limits and permit out‑of‑network care at in‑network cost sharing when enrollees had to relocate.
Hospital and community health center impacts Dr. Lori Morgan, president and CEO of Huntington Health and a displaced Altadena resident, described staff displacement and capacity strain: "Within 24 hours, more than 50% of our 4,000 employees were evacuated from their homes," she said, noting that staffing shortages forced cancellations and the repurposing of nonlicensed space to deliver care, and that nursing-home evacuations produced many patients without medications or identification.
Community clinics also played a central role. Dr. Adrienne Martinez Hollingsworth, director of research at AltaMed and clinical lead at the Pasadena evacuation site, said AltaMed served hundreds at the convention-center shelter and diverted patients from emergency departments. She said AltaMed deployed roughly 230 staff and volunteers and that "88.5 percent of patients at the evacuation site had at least 1 concern that required culturally competent health care solutions." AltaMed urged sustained funding for community health centers and behavioral health.
Ending: State and regulator testimony described rapid waivers and consumer protections intended to avoid care interruptions; hospital and clinic witnesses urged additional staffing, housing, mental‑health resources and rebuilding support to sustain care during long recoveries.
