Update on Blood Glucose Monitoring in Long-Term Care Facilities

Turner provides an update on blood glucose monitoring in long-term care facilities. In 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a regulation that made it much more difficult for providers to meet the criteria for billing for blood glucose monitoring as a lab test. In practice, as a result of the 2007 regulation, nursing facilities and home health providers may no longer receive separate Medicare payment for blood glucose monitoring performed pursuant to a standing order or an order for sliding scale glucose. Most recently, CMS has been joined by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a campaign to ensure that blood glucose monitoring in nursing facilities isn't only billed for in accordance with federal requirements, but also that the finger sticks are performed so as to minimize the risk of infection to the resident.