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The assistance includes special provisions by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help research facilities rebuild and carry on research projects. In addition, HHS' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing for emergency Medicare payment and other procedures to help ensure funding streams and enable the facilities to use their space flexibly and to temporarily share resources.

Immediately after the storm, HHS had also led the federal effort to provide emergency medical teams from around the country to serve patients in the Houston area.

"The hospitals of the Texas Medical Center are not only a central medical resource for the entire Gulf region, but also a great national treasure for biomedical research," Secretary Thompson said. "The storm damage that was sustained here was unprecedented for a medical complex of this size and importance. HHS agencies have pitched in to help the Texas Medical Center function as well as possible for its patients in the near term, and to restore capacity and continue making its remarkable contributions to the nation over the long term."

Secretary Thompson said that NIH will provide emergency funding supplements to existing grants this year to replace damaged or lost research resources. Because of the immediate need, funds could be used immediately to lease equipment prior to approval to buy new equipment. In addition, NIH will extend application deadlines so that the institutions can submit requests for construction grants for research and animal facilities, and NIH will waive the normal requirement for matching funds from the institutions.

"These are unusual steps, but they will make millions of dollars available quickly to help restore the research capacity that has been lost or damaged in the Medical Center's facilities," Secretary Thompson said.

NIH staff will also work with researchers whose projects have been compromised or delayed, and NIH will extend research project timeframes as needed to ensure that valuable projects are concluded.

Secretary Thompson also announced that CMS has taken a number of steps to accommodate hospitals and other health care providers, especially to recognize situations where billing and records systems have been damaged. CMS instructed its Medicare contractors, who pay Medicare claims, to respond as quickly as possible to requests for accelerated or advance payments. Likewise, CMS has told the contractors to be flexible in responding to requests for time extensions for medical record production, cost report submissions and other required data.

CMS is also providing emergency approval to facilities to use beds and other resources flexibly, and in some cases to share resources. Last month, CMS had given special permission to Memorial Hermann Hospital, a Medicare-approved transplant facility, to temporarily perform transplants for its patients at other non-certified facilities within their hospital chain.

Memorial Hermann, Baylor and Methodist Hospitals were the facilities being visited by the Secretary today. Accompanying him were members of Congress from Texas, CMS Administrator Tom Scully and NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research Wendy Baldwin, Ph.D.

The Houston area is home to almost $400 million in NIH funding. In the aftermath of the storm, Secretary Thompson said, facilities have cooperated with one another to help maintain patient care, continue research projects and restore research capacity.

Damage estimates by the hospitals have included $433 million at Memorial Hermann, primary teaching hospital for the University of Texas Medical School at Houston; $296 million at Baylor College of Medicine; and $195 million at Methodist Health Care System, home of heart surgery pioneer Michael E. DeBakey.

At the time of the storm, about 150 personnel from HHS-sponsored Disaster Medical Assistance Teams were dispatched to Houston from New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas, as well as others from within Texas. Another 100 nurses and other personnel were also supplied through the National Disaster Medical System, led by HHS. They supplied care to patients in Houston at existing facilities and at short-term emergency sites.

A total of 17 applicants from the Texas Medical Center have submitted requests for public assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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