In a recent comment letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, ACC, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and the Society of Nuclear Medical and Molecular Imaging thanked the Agency for being responsive and receptive to clinician concerns regarding payments for myocardial positron emission tomography (PET), while simultaneously stressing that additional work is needed "to correctly capture the practice expense necessary for myocardial PET services provided in the physician office setting."

This letter comes after widespread grassroots efforts in 2019 that successfully delayed proposed payment cuts of up to 80 percent in the in final 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, with societies working jointly to educate lawmakers on the ramifications of cutting payments to these services, and continuing to fight for patient access, especially in rural areas.

The letter explores solutions to indirect practice expense obstacles that cannot be immediately solved and also offers new information regarding direct practice expense inputs. Read the full text.

Clinical Topics: Noninvasive Imaging, Computed Tomography, Nuclear Imaging

Keywords: ACC Advocacy, Medicare, Medicaid, Fee Schedules, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S., Health Expenditures, Molecular Imaging, Positron-Emission Tomography

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