PPE Portal Starts October 12 for NYC LHCSAs 

Webinars to be held this week  

Situation Report | October 5, 2020

Starting October 12, Licensed Home Care Services Agencies (LHCSAs) who provide home care services in New York City (NYC) and meet certain criteria will be able to order personal protective equipment (PPE) from Medline, a company selected by NYC to provide PPE to health care providers.

Medline intends to hold a webinar on October 6 from 3 to 3:45 p.m. and October 7 from 4 to 4:45 p.m. to explain the eligibility criteria, how to set up an account and order PPE. Invitations are going out to LHCSAs who responded to a survey in September.

Medline already held a webinar on September 22 for Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs) and other health care providers that have been able to utilize Medline since September 28.

As extensively communicated to members, the NYC stockpile of PPE via Medline will act as a last-case, emergency option for providers after all other options have been exhausted. By submitting a request through medline.com, organizations confirm that the PPE is required to protect staff and patients during the COVID-19 response and that the agency currently has less than one week of the requested supplies on hand.

Importantly, NYC may seek to recover costs for provision of this PPE if the city is unable to get reimbursed under applicable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) emergency reimbursement policies, so providers should plan accordingly.

At this time, FEMA policies do not enable reimbursement of supplies provided to private for-profit entities, and, therefore, the city may seek cost recovery from these entities at a later date.

Based on survey data submitted by providers, facility requestor accounts have been established and user information was already sent to CHHAs (not yet to LHCSAs). PPE requests can be made up to once a week and those submitted online prior to 10 a.m. will be delivered the next working day.

A user guide on the submission process, along with Frequently Asked Questions, is here.

Questions about the Medline distribution process can be directed to the NYC customer service desk at 866-478-1490, ext. 2222.