Expensive Supplements

The doctor has recommended for my 78-year-old grandmother who has heart failure to drink Boost or Ensure. These products are expensive. Do you know of a way the to get a discount on these products via her doctor, Medicaid or Medicare?

Medicare doesn't cover nutritional supplements such as Boost or Ensure. Medicaid might, but first your grandmother must be on Medicaid, which means she has to have an extremely low income and very few assets. You might check with the Medicaid office for your state. Most doctors won't have samples of Boost or Ensure in the office, but it can't hurt to ask.

There are various recipes for making your own supplements, and of course there are the instant breakfast drinks you can mix with milk or orange juice. The thing is, your grandmother may need specific ingredients that may not be in these drinks, so I can't recommend any in particular.

A nutrition professional would be able to give you recipes you can prepare at home that might be quite a bit less expensive. Medicare will cover the cost of a consultation with a registered dietician or other "Medicare approved nutrition professional" for people with kidney disease who are not on dialysis, or who have a kidney transplant, or who have diabetes. Your grandmother would have to pay her 20%, of course (unless she has a supplement that covers her co-pays).

Even if she doesn't have diabetes or kidney disease it might be worth the cost of paying privately for a one-time consultation. You'd ultimately save the cost in the price of expensive supplements.