National Oncologic PET/CT registry

Recently, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a broad expansion of coverage for positron emission tomography (PET) scans for virtually all types of cancers. As part of this new reimbursement structure, CMS is asking that referring physicians and a registered facility, in this case Ministry Saint Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield, submit data to a clinical registry to assess the impact of PET on cancer patient management.

This is exciting news for patients. PET scans for all cancer indications will now be covered under the Medicare program if all the proper forms are filled out by the referring physician and the PET facility. There are no additional charges for patients to participate in the PET Registry program. The PET scan will be covered just like any other covered service under the Medicare plan, so any deductibles or gap payments may apply.

Patients will need to give their consent to participate in the research component of the PET Registry program. This consent will be asked for when the PET scan is performed. If a patient declines to participate in the research component of the program, the coverage by Medicare does not change and the patient will still be able to have the PET scan.

For More Information please call the Nuclear Medicine Department at 715-387-7787 or visit www.cancerpetregistry.org