US Medicare moots PET (positron emission tomography) for certain Alzheimer's patients
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to expand Medicare coverage of positron emission tomography (PET) to include some elderly and disabled beneficiaries suspected of having Alzheimer's disease. Use of the imaging technique would be covered for patients with a progressive symptom of dementia for at least six months, but for whom a diagnosis remains uncertain despite a thorough clinical evaluation, CMS said. Moreover, the patient must be suspected of having front-temporal dementia, and have symptoms unlike those found for Alzheimer's.