Home Health & Hospice Week

The flooding in the Baton Rouge, La., area has impacted about 80 home health agencies serving 4,500 patients and about 40 hospices serving 1,000 patients, says the HomeCare Association of Louisiana and the Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice Palliative Care Organization. Most patients were evacuated with family and friends, and a number of patients are in shelters, HCLA says in a message.

For example: Ariane Rodrigue, a patient of in-home support service agency Independent Living Center, was on her fourth shelter after being forced out of her apartment by flooding, reported The (Baton Rouge) Advocate Aug. 18. Two of her home care workers were fighting flood waters at their own homes as well.

The Advocate noted that home care agencies are fighting to assist their own workers as well as their clients. Many have lost their homes, their cars, and face daunting challenges getting to work.

Help: A fund for displaced in-home support service agency workers is at https://fundly.com/homecare-heroes-relief and had raised nearly $1,000 at press time. And HCLA will be taking donations soon, it says. “Providers from across the country are asking how they can assist and offering their prayers and good wishes for our quick recovery,” HCLA’s Warren Hebert says in the message. “HCLA will work hard to provide those friends a vehicle for action and compassionate response.”

Meanwhile, for information on regulatory relief based on disaster status, go to www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/Emergency/index.html — see the question-and-answer sets in the “Downloads” box.