The Honorable Alex Azar
Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201

Dear Secretary Azar:
The undersigned organizations represent the hundreds of thousands of physicians who treat our nation’s patients every day. We are writing to request immediate financial assistance for physicians across the country who are taking heroic action to treat patients with the novel coronavirus, providing ongoing care for patients with chronic conditions and urgent needs, and incurring significant financial losses due to postponing non-essential procedures and visits.

Congress intended to provide relief to physician practices who are suffering financial loss due to COVID19 by designating funding in the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The statute requires HHS to interpret eligibility for the
funding broadly to include all physicians who are experiencing revenue losses and non-reimbursable expenses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Physician practices, depending on their location and specialty, face several hardships that we believe should qualify for help. For example, we have heard physicians who are caring for patients with COVID19 are staying in hotels or renting an apartment to protect their loved ones and maintain a proper social
distance. Many physicians who practice in offices and ambulatory surgical centers are not seeing patients for non-essential visits and procedures to preserve medical supplies for treating patients with COVID-19 and to slow the community spread of the virus. We are also concerned that small practices are particularly vulnerable to financial ruin as they have less ready access to capital and are already operating on razor thin margins. In addition, we have heard from many large physician practices and faculty practice plans that have over 500 employees and will not qualify for the small business assistance in the CARES Act.

They are faced with the untenable position of laying off staff and physicians due to lower financial revenues while preparing for, and in some areas of the country, responding to a surge in patients with COVID-19.

We recommend HHS provide immediate relief to ensure a sufficient physician workforce is available in this country now and throughout the pandemic. Specifically, we urge HHS to provide one month of revenue to each physician (MD or DO), nurse practitioner, and physician assistant enrolled in

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