CMS increases PET MPI reimbursement

The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) will increase the reimbursement for PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) by 24 percent in the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System, which  will go into effect Jan. 1, 2010.

The rule maintains the assignment of all Cardiac PET CPT codes to APC 0307–with an increase in the payment for APC 0307 from $1,156.87 in 2009 to $1,432.87 in 2010.

PET MPI can be used to manage patients with coronary artery disease, and can be beneficial for difficult-to-image patients, including females, those who are obese or require pharmacologic stress testing and patients with multivessel disease or who have had an equivocal SPECT MPI study, according to the Milan, Italy-based Bracco Group.

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