Updated April 30, 2020

This quick-start COVID-19 physician guide, curated from comprehensive CDC, JAMA and WHO resources, will help prepare your practice, address patient concerns and answer your most pressing questions.

Prepare your practice or health system for COVID-19

• Resources for clinics and health care facilities: CDC resources
• Prevent the spread of COVID-19 in your practice or health care facility: Guides from WHO
• Overcome the new and unique operational challenges of COVID-19: AMA advice for practices

How to protect yourself and your employees from the effects of COVID-19

• Mental health resources for physicians and other frontline health care staff: Resources from the AMA and the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress
• How to minimize exposure and implement standard and transmission-based precautions: Interim infection prevention and control recommendations
• How to manage your supply of personal protective equipment (PPE): CDC Strategies for Optimizing PPE and supply of N95 respirators
• Prioritize urgent and emergency visits to help manage the supply of PPE: CMS recommendations on non-essential procedures

Diagnosing and treating patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19

• Who should be tested for COVID-19 and how to get them tested: Evaluating and testing for COVID-19
• Health care professionals should immediately notify their local or state health department in the event of a PUI for COVID-19: Find your state and local health department contacts
• How to manage patients diagnosed with COVID-19: Clinical guidance from the CDC
• Investigational and therapeutic treatment options: Treatment guidelines from NIH and CDC
• Read advice on People at Risk for Serious Illness from COVID-19

What to do if you have been exposed to patients with COVID-19

• How to assess risk, monitor for symptoms and understand work restriction decisions for health care professionals with potential exposure to COVID-19: Interim U.S. guidance
• Return to work criteria for health care workers: Interim CDC guidance (note that federal guidance may be adapted by state or local health departments to respond to rapidly changing local circumstances.)

How to communicate with patients

• Common myths that you should be ready to debunk: The biggest misconceptions
• Advice to give patients who have suspected or confirmed COVID-19: Top advice from CDC
• Notices to inform travelers and clinicians about current health issues that impact travelers’ health: CDC travel notices

Medicare and Medicaid coverage information

• Medicare providers: CMS Medicare FAQ
• Coverage and benefits related to COVID-19: CMS Medicaid FAQ
• Information related to COVID-19 individual and small group market insurance coverage: COVID-19 fact sheet 
• Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act: Benefits and provisions for physicians and practices

Telemedicine

• CMS Medicare Health Care Provider Fact Sheet for telemedicine
• AMA quick guide to telemedicine in practice