Medical Preparedness · Healthcare Access
Healthcare Access: a plan for when your usual care is closed.
Your pharmacy is closed, your doctor's office has no power, or you are three counties away from home. Knowing your options before that day is most of the preparation.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
Planning guidance, not medical advice. This section helps households prepare for medical continuity during disruptions. Work with your doctor, pharmacist, and specialist for your household's specific medical needs.
What this category covers
Access breaks in a few predictable ways. Each has its own fix.
Disruption to care takes different forms: a pharmacy that cannot open, a practice without power, an insurance card left at home, or local facilities stretched thin during a declared disaster. Most of the planning for each one can be done in an afternoon.
Prescriptions are the most common gap. After an emergency declaration, state boards of pharmacy may issue waivers that allow pharmacists to refill a prescription without the original prescription, using reasonable judgment, though these waivers do not override federal rules such as DEA regulations.1 For people without insurance, the federal Emergency Prescription Assistance Program can cover prescriptions and some supplies and equipment when it is activated for a disaster area.2
Records travel with you or not at all. CDC recommends keeping copies of insurance cards and medical records,3 plus a list of prescription medicines with diagnosis, dosage, frequency, and allergies.4 At an unfamiliar facility, that list is what the clinician works from.
What these guides do not cover
- Deciding whether a symptom needs urgent care. That is a clinical call for your provider or a nurse line.
- When to call 911 and the levels of care: Care Levels and When to Call 911
- Prescription supply planning: Prescription Preparedness
- Mental health treatment away from home: Mental Health
Where to start
The order of calls when your regular care is unavailable.
-
Your prescribing physician.
Ask now whether the practice has an after-hours line or telehealth visits, and note how to reach them.
Emergency Medical Documents -
Your pharmacist.
Ask what your state allows for emergency refills and record the pharmacist's direct number.1
Prescription Preparedness -
Your insurer.
Check the member services page for telehealth coverage and whether your plan offers a nurse line. Save both numbers.
Household Medical Profile -
Your local emergency management office.
Bookmark its website. During a declared disaster it is where shelters and medical services are announced.
Local Risks
Guides that go deeper
What to have ready before you need a different provider.
Travel and Evacuation Prescriptions
Refilling in another state, getting through security, and the programs that help when medications are lost.
Read the guide
Emergency Medical Documents
The one-page summary and records an unfamiliar facility needs from you.
Read the guide
Prescription Preparedness
The supply buffer and the pharmacist conversation before storm season.
Read the guide
Care Levels and When to Call 911
Choosing between a nurse line, urgent care, and the emergency department.
Read the guide
Common questions
Planning questions, answered plainly.
Can a pharmacist refill my prescription during a disaster without a new prescription?
Sometimes. After an emergency declaration, state boards of pharmacy may issue waivers allowing pharmacists to refill a prescription without the original prescription when they judge it reasonable. Those waivers do not override federal regulations, including DEA rules.1 Ask your pharmacist what applies in your state.
What if I have no insurance after a disaster?
When the Emergency Prescription Assistance Program is activated, enrolled pharmacies can fill prescriptions and some medical supplies and equipment for uninsured people living in the federally identified disaster area.2
Sources
- HHS ASPR TRACIE. Boards of Pharmacy. https://asprtracie.hhs.gov/technical-resources/resource/6878/boards-of-pharmacy. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (HHS). About the Emergency Prescription Assistance Program. https://www.aspr.gov/readiness-response/response-operations/epap/about-epap. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prepare Your Health: Paperwork. https://www.cdc.gov/prepare-your-health/take-action/paperwork.html. Accessed October 6, 2026.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prepare Your Health: Prescriptions. https://www.cdc.gov/prepare-your-health/take-action/prescriptions.html. Accessed October 6, 2026.
Connected guides
Healthcare Access connects to the rest of your plan.
First Aid
The hands-on half: emergencies, wounds, burns, and the household kit.
Medications and Prescriptions
Supply and refill planning.
Medical Documents and Records
Records for providers who do not know you.
Chronic Conditions
Specialist and treatment-center continuity.
Disability and Access Needs
Accessible shelters and transportation.
Local Risks
Hazard guides for your area.