Press Releases

MEDICARE ENTERS AGREEMENT WITH NOPR TO OBTAIN DATA ON USING PET SCANS IN CANCER TREATMENT

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced today it will work with the National Oncologic PET Registry (NOPR) to collect data nationwide to assist in management of patients with various forms of cancer.

“Working closely with NOPR is another example of CMS collaborating with the physician community to enhance the availability of innovative treatments and improve patient care,” said Mark McClellan, CMS Administrator.

Today’s announcement follows CMS’ January, 2005 decision to expand coverage of PET scans for brain, cervical, ovarian, pancreatic, small cell lung, and testicular cancers, as well as a broad range of other cancers not covered in prior National Coverage Determinations.

The NOPR is sponsored by the Academy of Molecular Imaging (AMI) and is managed by the American College of Radiology (ACR) through the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN). Other interested professional organizations include the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM).  The NOPR is a national, Internet-based, audited data repository which is designed to gather PET data from beneficiaries and providers, and to report on that data.

PET is a diagnostic imaging procedure that has the ability to differentiate cancer from normal tissue, and may add important information beyond conventional imaging studies in diagnosing and staging cancer and in monitoring a patient’s progress during treatment.

Barry Siegel, MD, co-chairman of the NOPR Working Group, said, “The NOPR affords oncologists, and nuclear medicine physicians, a unique opportunity to make PET available to Medicare beneficiaries and to improve our understanding of the role of PET in oncology practice.”