What we’ve been told is that Medicaid’s focus will be on a random four month sampling of invoices from a three year period looking specifically at ancillary medical supplies.  According to our sources ancillary has been defined as those supplies and services that are directly identifiable to an individual patient, furnished at the direction of a physician because of special medical needs and are either not reusable, represent a cost for each preparation or are complex medical equipment.  This four month random sample will then be analyzed by the auditors to find charges that should have been billed to other payer sources before it was billed to Medicaid.  That number will then be extrapolated to a three year grand total which will then be disallowed.

Your first question should be how can I combat this?  Unless you’re using a patient charge tracking software package and a Part B billing service you’ll have to do A LOT of leg work.  You’ll have to provide proof that the charges in question were both used and billed properly by comparing them to the resident charts.

A better way to combat this is to use Grove .  Allow us to provide Tracer, our patient charge and inventory tracking software and accredited Part B billing services FREE of CHARGE.   Tracer is a very well-rounded and easy-to-use software package that can also provide all the documentation and reporting you’ll need to make the audit process MUCH less painful.  We can also take care of your Part B billing for Wound Care, Ostomy, Trach and Enteral patients under our provider number.  This service is also offered at no charge to you for both the service and products not to mention our clinical support from our certified Clinical Nurse Consultant team.

We want to make sure that you view us as a resource and not just as a vendor.  That’s why our focus is on being the best medical supply partner to the long-term care industry by providing quality medical supplies and innovative services at competitive prices.  Contact us today to discuss how Grove can help you protect your organization and increase your bottom line.  There’s no sense in fighting this battle alone!

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical

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• Feds audit Texas’ Medicaid spending for braces (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• State Medicaid Programs Catch Up On Meaningful Use (informationweek.com)
• CMS and OIG Announce New Compliance Programs (3mhealthinformation.wordpress.com)

Some of the findings from the survey are very alarming: 36.8% of the respondents expect to layoff direct service staff, 23.5% plan to significantly delay or cancel the opening of new facilities and/or expansion of existing facilities and 37% expect to indefinitely postpone or cancel hiring of direct service staff.

With budgets, regulations and uncertainties, it is nice to have a partner that shares the same values; one who is dedicated to providing customer service at the lowest possible price.  Please contact us if we can help you during this turbulent time.

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical

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• Skilled Nursing Facilities Unsatisfied with Payer Mix, According to Survey by Patient Placement Systems (prweb.com)
• Medicare (dietanddisease.wordpress.com)
• Skilled Nursing Facilities Are Pessimistic, Skeptical About the Benefits of ACOs According to Survey by Patient Placement Systems (prweb.com)
• Medicaid (dietanddisease.wordpress.com)

Highlighted in this post are the continuing education opportunities provided to the customers of the world’s 5th largest manufacturer of diabetes self-monitoring systems, ARKRAY.  For many years Grove has partnered with ARKRAY to bring our valued customers their innovative products and now they’ve taken it a step further in offering FREE online CEU  courses through their Assure Brilliance program.  The topics range from needle-stick safety, infection control, nutrition and diabetes management and are accredited for RNs and CNAs.  Also several of the courses are accredited for Nursing Home Administrators, Registered Dietitians, and Social Workers.

As always we are very proud to serve our customers and to bring them new opportunities to save money, become more efficient and provide better care to their patients!  Please contact us if you’d like to take advantage of the CEU courses offered by ARKRAY or if you have suggestions on other subject areas that may be helpful.

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical

Once again Grove is working with the Wound Care Education Institute to bring two great seminars, this time to South Carolina.

Anyone that works with wounds whether they be an LPN, RN, Nurse Practitioner, Physical Therapist, Physician, Nurse Manager, Treatment Nurse, Wound Care Team Member, Clinical Director, MDS Coordinator, consultant or any other clinician interested in wound care should attend.   As an added bonus all nurses who attend will earn three (3) Continuing Education Units (CEUs) upon completion.

Both seminars will cover the following topics:

•  Identification – Wound Etiology
• Tissue Types
• 2007 New Pressure Ulcer Staging Guidelines
•  Skin Lesion
• Wound Pain
• Documentation

The first session is October 6th from 8:00am to 12:00pm at the Radisson Hotel Charleston Airport (5991 Rivers Ave., North Charleston, SC 29406, (843) 744-2501), the second session is on October 7th also from 8:00am to 12:00pm at the Embassy Suites Columbia-Greystone (200 Stoneridge Dr., Columbia, SC 29210, (803) 252-8700).  For more information and the registration form please contact Shannon Chitty, Grove’s Clinical Nursing Consultant, your Sales or Customer Service Representative or RSVP on our Facebook page!

Space is limited so sign up today!  Through our partnership we can help improve the care you deliver!

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical

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• Care and Management of Your Perineal Wound (ostomyhelp.wordpress.com)
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• Improved Pressure Ulcer Care Allows Wound Care Education Institute to Partner with Wisconsin Organizations for Second Time (prweb.com)
• Predictive Modeling for Wound Care – Risk Assessment Software To Integrate with EHR Systems That Predicts and Analyzes Wounds – WoundVision iNSIGHT (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)
• Good Samaritan Hospital’s Wound and Hyperbaric Institute Receives Accreditation from Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Recognizing Advanced Care (prnewswire.com)
• Helping Elderly Loved Ones by Identifying and Preventing Bedsores (prweb.com)

Although it never seems like enough, we say thank you to the heroes of that day and of the days and years that have followed.  We also send our deepest, most heart felt  regards to the families left behind by all that were lost as a result of these attacks and the ensuing wars.  America continues to be “…a shining city upon a hill..” and will carry on as strong as ever.

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical

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• Cuomo unveils 9/11 remembrance flag (timesunion.com)
• Celebrating “the enduring strength of American character” in Washington D.C. ()
• Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience Opens in New York (newsfeed.time.com)
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To date more than 270,000,000 units of the SpikeRight PLUS system have been sold worldwide with only one reported incident of tubing miss-connection.  To learn more about how Nestle can help you reduce the number of tubing miss-connects please watch the video below.  It not only presents facts and figures, but also gives you step-by-step instructions on how to use this innovative product.

As we’ve said before Grove is proud to partner with manufacturers who provide innovations to make our industry more efficient, safer and able to provide better care.  These are some of the same principles that we base our business on and we’d love to show you the Grove Medical difference.  Please contact us for more information on this product as well as the thousands of other products we represent.

Have a great day,

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical

As you know we began as a Medicare Part B billing company in 1988 and over the years we’ve grown into a full-line medical supply distributor.  Joan King joined our Grove Medical family, as small as it was at the time, in 1992 and helped nurture us to become who we are today: a part of the medical supplies distribution chain that strives for perfection everyday, delivers on promises made and truly appreciates our business partnerships.  Words cannot describe what Joan has meant to Grove these last 19 years, she will always be a part of who we are!

With that said our co-worker and good friend has decided to say farewell and retire to her home town.  Although she’ll be missed she will not be forgotten.  Please join us in wishing Joan the best of luck in her new life and a happy and restful retirement!

As always here are the Grove Family birthdays and anniversaries for this month.  Help us celebrate by wishing them all a happy birthday or congratulations!

Birthdays!

Anniversaries!

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical

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Hurricane Irene is heading towards the southeastern part of the country and the Hurricane Prep Center is urging us all, individuals and businesses, to get prepared and cover all our bases.  The Weather Channel also warns against complacency that may have been bred by the fact that only 4 hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S. since the destructive 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons.  Irene will be no different than any other hurricane, you cannot assume that it will make landfall elsewhere.

According to most reports we’ve read Irene should make landfall in south Florida early Friday morning and travel north reaching northern Florida early Saturday morning.

As your medical supply distribution partner we want to make sure that you have everything you need to be prepared and ready to care for your patients.  Please call, email or fax us ASAP to avoid any break downs in the supply chain and ensure that you have everything you need to provide the care your patients deserve.

Again we appreciate our partnerships and look forward to serving you!

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical

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Our friends at Kendall, a part of Covidien, have introduced their new Skin Wellness System in an effort to be the complete partner in providing top notch care for your patients.  Kendall’s system is designed to cleanse, moisturize, protect and treat skin and when you use each of the products in the line you can very effectively care for damaged skin, especially damage caused by incontinence.

The products in Kendall’s Skin Wellness System contain jojoba oil, a natural extract from the seeds of the jojoba plant that very closely resembles the oils found in our skin.  This resemblance allows the jojoba oil to be easily absorbed into the skin and with repeated application the moisturizing and skin protection effects of the jojoba oil are maximized.

As mentioned before you’ll find in this program products to cleanse, moisturize, protect and treat skin.  There are two no rinse cleansing options (Body Wash and Shampoo and 2-in-1 Cleanser), three options for moisturizing (Moisturizing Lotion, Moisture Barrier Cream and Soothing Ointment), one option for protection (Antimicrobial Cleanser) and one for treatment (Antifungal Cream).

Grove is one of only a handful of distributors in the healthcare supply chain with access to Kendall’s new Skin Wellness line so give us a call, email or visit our website for more information, we’d love to help you!

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical