 Home
What Is The NOPR 
NOPR Forms
Info For PET Facilities
Info For Referring
Physicians
Info For Patients
Patient Information Sheet
Spanish Patient Info Sheet
Informacion Para Los
Pacientes
PET Facility Registration
Registered Users
Frequently Asked
Questions
Educational Materials
News
Monthly Status Report
Contact Us
|
 |
| |
Overview
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as the Federal agency that administers the Medicare program, currently only pays for positron emission tomography (PET) scans for certain reasons and for certain types of cancer. CMS wants to determine if they should pay for PET scans for additional reasons and additional types of cancer. In order to collect the information needed to decide which other types of cancer should be covered by Medicare, CMS will provide payment for the PET scans of patients who are properly registered with the National Oncologic PET Registry (NOPR). This information will then be analyzed to determine the effect PET scans had on the way physicians planned to treat their patients.
What is FDG-PET?
Positron emission tomography (PET), also called PET imaging or PET scan, is a test that images the function of cells to show differences between healthy tissue and diseased tissue. It uses a small amount of a radioactive chemical which is combined with sugar. This combination is called FDG, so the test is sometimes called an FDG-PET scan. It is used to evaluate various neurological and cardiac disorders, as well as for diagnosing, staging and monitoring the treatment of many different cancers. Prior to the PET scan, a small amount of FDG is injected into the patient. Because cancer grows at a faster rate than healthy tissue, cancer cells take up more of the FDG. The PET scanner detects the radiation given off by the FDG and produces color-coded pictures (images) of the body that show both normal and cancerous tissue. Many current PET scanners also include a conventional x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner. This allows images of both anatomy (CT) and function (PET) to be taken during the same examination.
What PET Scan Facilities Can Participate in the NOPR?
Any PET facility that is allowed to bill CMS can participate in the
NOPR. PET facilities are charged a one-time $50 facility registration
fee and $50 for each patient entered on the Registry.
What Patients are Eligible to Participate in the NOPR?
Any PET facility that is allowed to bill CMS can participate in the NOPR. PET facilities are charged a one-time $50 facility registration fee and $50 for each patient entered on the Registry.
Who Will Pay for the PET Scans?
The PET scans will be paid by Medicare. Co-payment costs or deductible payments will be paid by the patient or by the patient’s Medigap insurance.
How is a Patient Entered in the Registry?
The PET facility must be registered to participate in the NOPR and the patient’s referring physician (medical oncologist, radiation therapist, surgeon, etc.) must agree to complete pre- and post-PET data collection forms that ask several questions regarding the patient’s planned treatment. The PET facility will enter the patient’s information into the registry database through a secure web site.
Who Will Have Access to Patient Information?
The data submitted to the NOPR will be kept in a secure electronic database at the American College of Radiology (ACR). In addition to CMS, only members of the NOPR working group and NOPR project staff at the ACR and the Center for Statistical Sciences at Brown University will have access to individual patient data. These are the people who are responsible for making a recommendation to CMS on what types of PET scans should be paid for by Medicare. At no time will data that identifies individual patients be made public.
|
| |
|
|
