After years of struggling to secure Medicare reimbursement for positron emission tomography (PET) scans, advocates of the technology are seeing light at the end of the tunnel with the upcoming May 8 launch of the National Oncologic PET Registry (NOPR).
The registry, to be managed by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN), and sponsored by the Academy of Molecular Imaging (AMI), has been formally approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and ACR's Institutional Review Board (IRB). ACR and ACRIN have been developing the registry with AMI since January 2005.
In the past, Medicare has reimbursed for PET scans of certain common cancers, but with the launch of NOPR, participating Medicare beneficiaries will have PET coverage for all types of cancers, including brain, cervical, small cell lung, pancreatic, testicular, and ovarian.
More than 600 PET facilities across the U.S. have already registered with NOPR. The registry will collect data that will help assess the impact of PET in the management of cancer patients.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
April 27, 2006
Related Reading
PET registry primed for takeoff, March 27, 2006
CMS, NOPR to collect PET data, February 10, 2006
CMS provides details on new PET coverage, April 8, 2005
PET registry previewed at AMI, March 21, 2005
AMI, ACRIN partner on PET registry development, February 7, 2005
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