The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) as a provider of appropriate use criteria for advanced diagnostic imaging studies.
CMS has designated the SNMMI as a qualified provider-led entity (PLE) for the Medicare Appropriate Use Criteria program. As a result, referring physicians will be able to use the society's appropriate use criteria to fulfill the requirements of the 2014 Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA); PAMA mandates that referring physicians consult appropriate use criteria developed by a qualified provider-led entity.
The SNMMI said that it's currently wrapping up development of appropriate use criteria for scintigraphy in malignant disease, ventilation perfusion imaging in pulmonary embolism, hepatobiliary scintigraphy in abdominal pain, and PET/CT in restaging of malignant diseases.
In addition, the society is working on six additional appropriate use criteria for prostate cancer imaging, myocardial perfusion imaging with PET, somatostatin imaging, infection imaging, nuclear medicine procedures for thyroid cancer, and gastrointestinal transit.
