Certificates Available to Protect Medically Vulnerable Customers During Safety Shutoffs
Posted on September 2, 2021 by Will Gehrke
Tags, Energy
If you or a member of your household requires electricity or natural gas in your home for medical reasons, CUB recommends that you sign up for Oregon’s Utility Medical Certificate Program. This program allows eligible customers to receive assistance such as increased billing flexibility, enhanced disconnection protections, and additional information during public safety shutoffs. (You can read about what public safety shutoffs are and how they impact residential customers here.) Utility medical certificates do not excuse customers from paying for electric or natural gas service. In this blog, CUB will explain how to sign up for a medical certificate and how wildfires and COVID-19 have changed this program.
Why is this program needed?
Various medical issues require electricity or natural gas energy to manage. For example, many people need electricity to keep insulin cold or to power an oxygen machine. The Utility Medical Certificate Program provides enhanced protections for Oregonians who require electricity or natural gas to survive.
If anyone in your household (family member, roommate) requires energy to power life-saving medical devices, you may qualify for a medical certificate. Even if your household qualifies, it is still recommended that you be prepared for natural disasters and interruptions of utility service. A medical certificate will not exempt you from service outages or provide you with priority utility service.
How do I sign up?
To sign up for this program, you must first contact your utility to obtain a utility medical certificate form.
- Pacific Power Medical Certificate Program - follow this link or call 1-877-283-7697
- Portland General Electric (PGE) Medical Certificate Program - follow this link or call 503-612-3838
- NW Natural Medical Certificate Program – call NW Natural customer service at 1-800-422-4012
- Avista Medical Certificate Program – call 1-800-227-9187 to speak to a customer service person and ask for the Cares Department. Avista’s Cares Department will help you fill out the application. Avista recommends that you have the fax number and phone number of your doctor’s office on hand.
- Cascade Medical Certificate Program – call 1-888-522-1130 or send an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with the Subject: Medical Certificate, Customer Name, Account Number. In the body of the email, include the medical professional’s name, fax number, and phone number. Cascade will fax the application to them. If you do not have an email address, you can call customer service, tell them you do not have an email address, and give them the medical professional’s contact info.
- Idaho Power Medical Certificate program – call 1-800-488-6151 to speak to a customer service person and give them the fax number for your doctor’s office. Idaho Power will send the application to your doctor and then call you back to confirm the certification.
After contacting your utility, an authorized medical professional must certify that disconnection would significantly endanger the health a member of your household. Medical certificates are only valid for the length of time the health condition exists and must be renewed regularly. Under Oregon law, non-chronic illnesses are granted medical certificates for six months. Chronic illnesses can be certified for up to a year with recertification required annually. Utilities are required to notify customers 15 days before their medical certificate expires.
How have wildfires affected the medical certificate programs?
In the past two years, Oregon has experienced historic wildfires statewide. In circumstances where extreme weather conditions have threatened utilities’ ability to safely operate their distribution and transmission systems, they have implemented public safety power shutoffs. Specific areas of PGE’s and Pacific Power’s utility systems have been identified for shutoff based on risk, vegetation, and historic weather conditions. These shutoffs deenergize portions of the utility system and remove entire neighborhoods from electricity service until the immediate wildfire threat has passed.
While an electricity disconnection is inconvenient for the average customer, these public safety shutoffs can be dangerous for customers who rely on electricity to survive. Customers who are enrolled in the Medical Certificate Program and live in a public power safety shutoff zone receive phone calls and additional information from their utility before the shutoff event. From CUB’s experience, customers tend to sign up for the Medical Certificate Program to avoid disconnection during a period of economic hardship and medical needs. But there are many customers who can easily afford their utility bills but are dependent on electricity to survive.
If you live in a Public Safety Power Shutoff zone and depend on electricity to survive, CUB recommends that you sign up for a medical certificate. In other words, don’t wait until your household is actively threatened by a wildfire and/or a safety shutoff to obtain this protection. The following maps show the service territories of PGE and Pacific Power as well as safety shutoff zones in their respective territories. If you are a customer of either utility, you can visit the appropriate map to see if your address lies within a shutoff zone. (See the legend in the upper right corner of the map for color coding information.)
How has COVID-19 impacted this program?
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Oregon utilities are currently allowing self-certification for medical certificates. Customers can self-certify for a period of two months before they are required to produce a certification from a qualified medical professional.
Since early 2020, hundreds of thousands of Oregonians have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and several thousand have been hospitalized. According to the Centers for Disease Control, most people get better within weeks. But some people experience extended “long COVID” symptoms such as difficulty breathing, fatigue, cough, headache, and muscle pain. Treatment for these conditions may involve powered medical equipment, and these customers may not be aware of the utility Medical Certificate Program. More outreach is needed to ensure that those suffering from long COVID are aware of and able to access this program.
Moving forward, does CUB want any changes to the program?
There are some problems with requiring certification from a medical professional. Not every Oregonian has access to medical insurance or affordable medical care. A doctor’s visit to obtain a medical certificate can be a financial burden on customers. CUB would also like to see longer medical certificate qualification periods for chronic illness. Annual recertification for incurable chronic issues is a bureaucratic burden and expense for vulnerable customers. CUB is interested in having self-certification be allowed for medical certificates.
While we see a need for some improvements, CUB is supportive of this state program that helps protect customers from disconnection while they are enduring medical emergencies. It is immoral to deprive individuals of energy when it is needed for survival. Medical certificate programs provide additional flexibility for customers to make payments on utility services while helping to avoid adverse health outcomes for vulnerable communities.
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09/03/21 | 1 Comment | Certificates Available to Protect Medically Vulnerable Customers During Safety Shutoffs