CMS Approves PET Registry; Expands Medicare Coverage of PET

CMS approval opens the door to Medicare coverage of positron emission tomography (PET) scans for a much wider array of cancers and indications. Examples of newly covered indications for PET scanning include brain, cervical, ovarian, pancreatic, small cell lung, and testicular cancer. The start date for patient registration will be announced soon; CMS approval was a prerequisite for that.

The National Oncologic PET Registry (NOPR) was developed in response to a CMS proposal to expand PET coverage if the patient’s referring physician and the imaging provider submit data to a clinical registry. NOPR is that registry. The registry will assess the impact of PET with F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG-PET) on management of oncology patients. Once the project is activated, referring physicians will complete short surveys before and after the PET scans. The PET facility will electronically transmit the scans to the NOPR database. NOPR investigators will assess the effect of PET scans on referring physicians’ plans for patient management, and report findings to CMS. The American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) Biostatistics Center at Brown University will provide data analysis support.

NOPR received input from, and is endorsed by, the American College of Radiology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Society for Nuclear Medicine. NOPR worked with CMS to develop the registry.