The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending nearly $4.7 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse UMass Memorial Health Care, Inc. for the costs of testing, acquiring equipment and hiring temporary staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $4,693,148 in Public Assistance grants will reimburse the health care system in central Massachusetts – headquartered in Worcester and affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School – for providing testing, leasing equipment, and hiring temporary staff between January 2020 and March 2022.
One grant of $3,364,294 will cover the cost of testing 107,246 people between January and July 2020, as well as the cost of hiring temporary healthcare workers; setting up tents with generators and HVAC installation for the tents; and hiring security for the facilities.
The hospital system also contracted for translation services to facilitate communication between healthcare professionals and COVID-19 patients; for transportation services to deliver items between hospital locations and transport the remains of patients who had died; and for administrative services.
A second grant of $1,328,854 will reimburse UMass Memorial Health Care, Inc. for the cost of purchasing reagent dispensers, accessories for bed monitors, and bedside monitors as well as renting 945 ventilators between August 2021 and March 2022.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist UMass Memorial Health Care with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Providing resources for our partners on the front lines of the pandemic fight is critical to their success, and our success as a nation.”
FEMA’s Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.
So far, FEMA has provided more than $1.4 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.
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