CMS In Brief

CMS expands coverage of PET for solid tumors: Agency finalizes its coverage reconsideration Aug. 4 on positron emission tomography for solid tumors and myeloma, easing its previous strict limit of one FDG PET study per patient during the initial treatment stages. While CMS will continue to nationally cover only one PET scan to determine the location and/or extent of a tumor for therapeutic purposes related to the initial treatment strategy, local Medicare contractors will now have discretion to determine whether to cover additional PET scans as needed during the initial treatment stage. CMS opened the reconsideration late last year at the request of several radiology and nuclear medicine professional societies (1"The Gray Sheet" Nov. 16, 2009)