Name Change for Abbott Nutrition’s Glucerna Shake

Abbott Nutrition emailed this morning to let us know that Glucerna Shake, the #1 doctor recommended nutrition shake for people with diabetes* ,  will soon undergo a name change.  Per the email we received the change is in response to new regulatory mandates requiring a ‘statement of identity’ on product labels and that there will be absolutely NO change to the product itself or the item numbers.  The new name will be Glucerna Therapeutic Nutrition and will begin entering the market this month.

Regarding the lack of changes to the formulation it was noted that  CARBSTEADY^®, which includes slowly digestible carbohydrates designed to help minimize blood sugar spikes, will continue to be a part of the formulation.  Also the 27 vitamins and minerals, 100% of the daily value of Vitamin C, and chromium picolinate, which aides your own body’s insulin, are still there.   More great news is that Glucerna Therapeutic Nutrition will continue to be gluten free and suitable for folks who are lactose intolerant.  Below is a mock-up of the new label:

Keep in mind that the new name rolls out this month so don’t be alarmed, you’re still getting the same great Glucerna Shake, just under a  new name.  If you have any questions please contact us and we’ll be glad to help out!

The Healthcare Note by Grove Medical

Are you ready for your MEDICAID AUDIT!?!

If you haven’t heard yet, Medicaid is performing audits all over the country and they’re already in the Southeast.  We know just reading those words will stress you out so we thought we’d pass along what we’ve heard as well as a few tips from folks who’ve already gone through this exercise.

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

Related articles

• 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)

New Compat Administration Sets from Nestle

Nestle continues to advance safety through innovation by introducing their new Compat® Administration Pump sets with the SpikeRight® PLUS Connector.   With this introduction Nestle has taken the lead, even amid delays by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), in offering an enteral feeding system that is incompatible with I.V. systems.

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