Dear Patients;

As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation continues to evolve, it’s important that we all work together to stay healthy and keep our community healthy. Doing your part will help not only your family, but those in the community who are at higher risk for serious illness, such as older people and those with compromised immune systems.

Recently, multiple counties issued a shelter in place for everyone, not just those over 60. This means that all non-essential activities and travel should be postponed or cancelled for the next couple of weeks. However, this could extend beyond the recommended 2-3 weeks, so be prepared to make changes as needed.

Urgent Care Centers and Emergency rooms are inundated with people who are sick. Therefore, they are unable to triage your symptoms expediently, and are relying on primary care providers to help assess these symptoms and what to do next.

Currently, all John Muir online scheduling has been suspended and Urgent Care is no longer taking walk-ins. The hospitals are now triaging who can be admitted to the Emergency Room and has barred all visitors from the entire hospital (Labor and Delivery is the only exception). All routine appointments and elective surgeries are being cancelled or postponed, and all routine appointments being converted to phone appointments.

Our office is now following similar protocols and will attempt to do all appointments by phone. Any urgent care cases or necessary visits will still be done at our office, but we will have strict infection protocols in place to protect our patients and ourselves from the virus.

If you feel sick, please contact our office at 925-296-9228. We are open Monday-Friday 9am to 5pm. You can also reach Dr. Rotman or Nicole by email for non-urgent requests or concerns (Dr. Rotman: DocR@barryrotmanmd.com, Nicole: Nicole@barryrotmanmd.com).

Dr. Rotman is available on his cell phone after hours for emergencies. Our office will remain open during the shelter in place.

We want to re-assure our patients that we are here to help answer any question or concern you may have and encourage you to reach out to us if you feel sick, whether mild or moderate symptoms.

INFORMATION ABOUT COVID-19 TESTING

Currently, the guidelines for screening of the COVID-19 test are for symptomatic patients only. The test is not available for screening patients who are asymptomatic. We will have a very limited number of tests, so we must carefully screen patients that may need it. If you are symptomatic and are experiencing any fever (100.6 and up), cough, sore throat or respiratory distress, please contact our office.

REQUESTING A 90 DAY SUPPLY OF YOUR MEDICATIONS:

Most of our patients currently are receiving a 90 days supply of their medications, if you are NOT, these steps will help you get your prescriptions changed.

You can request a 90 day supply for any of your valid, current prescriptions on file at the pharmacy. Simply call the pharmacy and request the change. You do not need new prescriptions to fill a 90 days supply of your current RX’s.

If there are no remaining refills on the prescription, the pharmacy will contact us for refills. At that time, we will convert all RX’s to 90 days supply.

If your insurance does not cover a 90 day supply, you may be required to pay out-of-pocket for the remaining amount (60 days worth). Most RX’s have a generic alternative to the brand name drugs, so they should be fairly in expensive.

If it is too early for your prescription to be filled, you can request an early refill. If your insurance does not allow early refills, you will have to pay cash.

EMERGENCY SUPPLY OF MEDICATIONS

There are currently no shortages on drug supplies, however, if you can, you should always get 90 days’ worth of your medication. Even when we aren’t in the midst of a pandemic. Currently, we are recommending that patients have an additional 30-day supply of medication, as a back-up.

You do not need any additional prescriptions or permissions from our office to get a back-up supply of your medications. Simply contact the pharmacy and request an additional 30-days.

Your insurance may not cover this, but there are drug coupons you can use to lessen the financial burden.

Here is some information on prescription supplies and back-up stock

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/covid-19-how-to-get-refills/

There are a few informative links regarding the current situation of COVID-19 in the Bay Area that will be posted at the bottom.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/us/shelter-in-place-order-bay-area.html

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html