ACloserLook Reimbursement Issues in Diagnostic Imaging

Medicare Coverage Decisions

FDG PET Scans for Cancer Patients

On January 29, 2005, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a national coverage decision (NDC) that expands coverage for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans for certain uses in the evaluation of patients with brain, cervical, ovarian, pancreatic, ovarian, and testicular cancers, as well as for a broad range of other cancers.

Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICD)

CMS also updated the NDC for ICDs. As of January 27, 2005, patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) with a documented prior myocardial infarction (MI); a measured left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < 0.35; and inducible, sustained ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) at electrophysiology study (EP) are now covered.

For more information on these and other NDCs, please visit:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/coverage.

Second Quarter 2005

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