Who foots the bill for hospital patients temporarily evacuated by Florence?

Sept. 19--Grand Strand hospitals were evacuated ahead of Hurricane Florence's coastal onslaught, and many patients were temporarily displaced.

Hundreds of evacuated patients' insurance plans will be billed after Hurricane Florence caused Grand Strand Health to transport patients from the area.

Julie Kopnicky Tyre with Grand Strand Health said EMS and medical transport providers will bill the patients' insurance plans. She said the cost to evacuate a patient is unknown, and transport providers handle the billing.

"We will work directly with the EMS and medical transport providers to ensure that patients are not burdened by a large transport bill," Tyre said.

All patients, Tyre said, were evacuated by Sept. 12 ahead of Florence. She said 317 patients at Grand Strand Health were evacuated within 48 hours from the 32 healthcare facilities, including hospitals.

Tyre said Grand Strand Health applied to shelter in place as the only Level I trauma center serving Myrtle Beach, but that application was denied and patients were evacuated.

Healthcare services began to reopen on Sunday.

Tidelands Health officials say while they don't have a full total on evacuation costs, they do expect to take on "significant expense" for storm evacuations.

"Our focus throughout the storm and now has been on our patients," Carl Lindquist, Tidelands Health spokesman said by email. "Our team is concentrated on supporting their care needs as our community recovers from the storm."

Hannah Strong: 843-444-1765, @HannahLStrong

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