ACC Appropriate Use Criteria Methodology: 2018 Update

Appropriate Use Criteria.

SNMMI Leadership Update: Focus on Quality: Update on the Development of Evidence-Based Appropriate Use Criteria.

I n March 2014, Congress passed the Protecting Access to Medicare Act, which tied physician reimbursement for advanced diagnostic imaging services to appropriate use criteria (AUC). The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published in November 2015 the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) final rule for 2016, which now outlines a specified process for development and approval of AU...

Can appropriate use criteria lead to appropriate care?

T he rapid pace of technological development has brought a wealth of diagnostic and therapeutic options to the care of patients. These new diagnostic and therapeutic tools have dramatically altered medical care but have come with a steep price tag, and it is not clear that the improvement in the quality of care is proportional to the cost of the medical system. In recognition of the fact that t...

Understanding appropriate use criteria in nuclear medicine.

There has been a significant increase in cardiac radionuclide imaging over the past decade, leading to a corresponding increase in scrutiny from Federal and private health plans questioning the necessity of these tests. In response to efforts by third-party payers to limit all types of cardiovascular imaging studies, the American College of Cardiology Foundation, in conjunction with other profe...

Update on appropriate use criteria for amyloid PET imaging: dementia experts, mild cognitive impairment, and education.

Amyloid PET imaging is a novel diagnostic test that can detect in living humans one of the two defining pathologic lesions of Alzheimer disease, amyloid-β deposition in the brain. The Amyloid Imaging Task Force of the Alzheimer's Association and Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging previously published appropriate use criteria for amyloid PET as an important tool for increasing th...