Firefighters work to contain wildfires near Los Angeles Jan. 9. Photo: Amanda Bronstad/ALM
Health and benefits companies like GoodRx, Aetna and CVS Health are starting to put together their response to the catastrophic wave of wildfires that has been hitting the Los Angeles area over the past week.
The Eaton Fire, the Hurst Fire and the Palisades Fire have killed 24 people, destroyed more than 12,000 structures, and led to evacuation orders for communities with about 180,000 residents.
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The disaster has been slower moving than an earthquake and comparable in some ways to a hurricane.
Related: Disaster prep and recovery: 4 tips for 2024 and beyond
The early announcements show how health and benefits organizations have started to develop a standardized disaster response strategy, based on use of telehealth services, temporary rule waivers, and extra efforts to support people with disabilities or serious health problems.
Free services for the community: GoodRx is using a special promotional code to offer Los Angeles-area residents access to free urgent care services through its GoodRx Care telehealth program.
The program can also help callers get new prescriptions for any medications that have been destroyed in the fires or left behind when people evacuated.
CVS Health's Aetna health insurance unit is making its Resources for Living services package available to everyone in the affected area at (833) 327-2386. The program can offer mental health support and help with finding community resources.
Magellan Health, a big behavioral health services provider, is offering free crisis line support to people in the affected area at (800) 327-7451.
Like the Aetna support line, the Magellan crisis line can help callers find resources in the community.
Crunch Fitness, a gym, is helping by letting anyone in the community come to its facilities to shower, use the wifi and charge their devices.
Health plan flexibility and support: Blue Shield of California put out notices in English and Spanish saying it will provide extra emergency refills for plan members affected by evacuations and special evacuation-period arrangements for patients in care management programs.
The carrier also says that it's providing urgent care to members at all times through Teladoc and nurse advice through a toll-free nurse line.
Similarly, Aetna, CareFirst, Centene's Health Net unit and Elevance's Anthem Blue Cross have put out notices informing enrollees about access to telehealth and telesupport services, temporary flexibility on requirements related to use of in-network and out-of-network care, and emergency prescription refill access.
Disability, dental and vision: Lincoln Financial says it's responding to the emergency by taking address change requests over the telephone, rather than requiring that all requests be made in writing and pushing back deadlines for submitting notices of loss, proofs of loss and appeal notices, according to Warner Pacific.
Similarly, Sun Life is easing deadlines and offering workers and employers more help with tasks such as filing claims and getting replacement glasses.
Dialysis: About 40,000 people in the Los Angeles are are getting kidney dialysis. DaVita, a dialysis services provider, says it's installing air scrubbers in the centers in the affected areas, moving patients who use centers in areas affected by evacuation orders to other centers, and making sure that all patients have the medical information they need to move suddenly to another dialysis center.
DaVita is also welcoming anyone who needs dialysis at its dialysis centers that remain open, the company says.
Donations: New York Life has pledged $150,000 toward disaster-relief efforts, including $100,000 to the California Fire Foundation's Wildlife & Disaster Relief Fund and $50,000 to the American Red Cross.
Information: Morgan Lewis has posted an article about how employers can pay some out-of-pocket expenses of employees affected by disasters and help employees by contributing to tax-exempt organizations.
If an employer reimburses a worker for "reasonable and necessary personal, family, living or funeral expenses" resulting from a disaster, and follows recommended guidelines, the payments "are not subject to federal employment tax, and are deductible to the employer," according to the article.
The authors note that President Joe Biden has already declared the California wave of wildfires to be a major disaster.
Morgan Lewis and Littler also have advice about how employers can organize leave-sharing programs to help employees affected by disasters. Well-structured leave-sharing programs can give employees a way to donate accrued but unused leave to employees who have exhausted their leave.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
