Medicare Heart Scan Coverage To Continue

On Wednesday CMS announced that CT scans to detect heart disease will still be covered by Medicare. The Times reported that there was concern that CT scans were being done more and more on patients who did not show signs of heart ailments. This needlessly subjected them to radiation risks.

The CT scan is a substitute for angiography wherein a catheter is inserted into blood vessel. Angiography is performed only on patients who have showed signs of heart ailment. There were “misgivings over whether there was enough evidence to justify paying for the tests under Medicare” earlier.

This had resulted in CMS saying that Medicare would not cover CT scans in a statement in December 2007. This decision of CMS met with fierce resistance from both equipment makers as well as doctors. The reason was that scans were very important as an alternative to conventional angiography.

As per this new announcement, local insurance carriers who oversaw medical claims would determine whether the scans would be covered. The cost of the scan is upwards of $600. In 2006 40 to 50 million dollars were paid for about 70,000 scans.