INFORMATION FOR PHYSICIANS AND PRACTICES ON COVID-19
Third COVID-19 Related Death Reported in Kern County
PRESS RELEASE FROM KERN COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH
CONTACT: Michelle Corson, Public Relations Officer
(661) 868-0288 or (661) 304-7766
April 9, 2020

KERN COUNTY, CA – Kern County Public Health Services Department has received confirmation of the third COVID-19 related death in a Kern County resident.   More...
HHS made $30 billion in direct deposits to physician practices today - April 10
This morning, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)  announced  that Medicare-enrolled providers would receive a  direct deposit disbursements  today totaling $30 billion. The $30 billion is part of the $100 billion Public Health and Emergency Fund created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to provide financial assistance to physician practices, hospitals and other providers negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. More...
IMPORTANT REMINDER! Tell us how COVID-19 is affecting your practice
We need your feedback no later than April 15.

CMA knows that physician practices across California are hurting. Many physicians are experiencing high levels of financial uncertainty and are making difficult choices about the future of their practices. CMA has been advocating at the state and federal level to ensure financially distressed physician practices remain viable to provide care to patients during and after this public health emergency.

On Tuesday, CMA launched a survey so we can learn how the COVID-19 crisis is impacting individual practices. We have already received thousands of responses, but we need to hear from YOU . If you haven’t already, please take our survey. These results help in our ability to tell your story to state and federal lawmakers as they consider future COVID-19 relief efforts.

Please respond to our  brief five-minute survey  no later than April 15, 2020.

April 9 - Federal government announces NEW financial assistance programs
The federal government announced new measures on Thursday aimed at helping small and medium sized businesses – including physician practices – through the COVID-19 crisis. More...
AMA announces new CPT codes for COVID-19 antibody tests
The American Medical Association (AMA) today announced two new CPT codes to report when patients receive blood tests that detect COVID-19 antibodies. More...
CMS provides $51 billion to Medicare providers with the accelerated/advance payment program in one week
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced April 9 it has now delivered more than $51 billion in advance payments to health care providers to ensure they have the resources they need to combat this pandemic. More...
CMA applauds Governor Newsom on housing for health care workers
SACRAMENTO – The California Medical Association (CMA) applauds Governor Gavin Newsom’s actions to address logistical burdens for physicians and health care workers across the state as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Thursday, Gov. Newsom announced that California would begin providing hotel vouchers to health care workers and to frontline providers to allow them to treat COVID-19 patients without risk of exposing their own families or loved ones. More...
Noridian hosts webinars for physicians on Medicare advance payment requests
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded its  accelerated and advance payment program  for participating Medicare providers and suppliers to lessen the financial hardships of providers facing extraordinary challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. CMS said it provided $34 billion in advance payments in just the first week of the expansion. More...
Frequently Asked COVID-19 Questions
UPDATED 4/8/2020
CMA has developed a great FAQ on COVID-19. It is updated frequently, so keep checking back. It answers questions by topic and topics include:

  • Personnel
  • Financial
  • Telehealth
  • Testing
  • Prescribing
  • Miscellaneous
Latest COVID-19 Facts
Kern County  (  Kern County Public Health  )
Positive Tests (Kern Residents) - 363
Positive Tests (Non-Residents) - 8
Deaths - 3

Co nfirmed Cases - 19,472
Deaths - 541

Confirmed Cases - 459,165
Deaths - 16,570

Confirmed Cases - 1,524,161
Deaths - 92 941

All of these numbers were pulled from the respective websites 4/10/20, 4:30PM.