Medicare approves coverage of FDG-PET for 11 cancers

April 6, 2009 Medicare approves coverage of FDG-PET for 11 cancers By H.A. Abella The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has opened a new chapter in the practice of positron emission tomography with the announcement for a national Medicare payment policy that expands coverage of PET scans in the initial treatment strategy of most solid cancers and for myeloma. Nuclear physicians immediately praised the long awaited decision. According to the decision memo published April 3, CMS will replace the previous four coverage categories, including diagnosis, staging, restaging, and monitoring response to treatment, with a two-part system. The new national coverage determination (NCD) will be used to differentiate FDG-PET scans done to plan initial tumor treatment strategy from further imaging needed to guide patient management after the completion of initial treatment.

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