I am sure most or you are already aware of what is coming down the pike effective July 1, 2013 for Medicare DM testing supply reimbursement but thought this was a a great topic to review. So we know that Medicare's DME Competitive Bid Program will certainly effect you and how you help your patients manage their blood sugars. With MI BCBSM jumping on board with the same program, it is surely impacting all DM patients in the state of MI.
I wanted to share with you what our small Acute care Hospital is hoping to implement to help our DM patients. Our HME/pharmacy currently has stock for 17 different types of test strips! Yikes. Our DM team here are working to standardize the glucometers we hand out down to 2 or 3 different brands therefore streamlining the test strips in our HME/pharmacy. We will carry the Bayer Contour, which is covered by Medicaid, but are still looking at others. Patients will need to come into the clinic to pick up a new glucometer and get trained by our DM staff, which we hope may ultimately increase our clinic visits! Our administration realizes that we will take a hit financially on covering the costs of the test strips but we will keep our patients as customers for their other medications. We plan to send a letter out to all of our DM patients with this information and hope we can help with this transition.
What ideas or changes do you think may work in your setting and how are they being addressed? Please share. July is coming up on us fast!