The Nuclear Medicine Accreditation Program involves the acquisition of clinical and phantom images and corresponding data for each unit. All providers that bill for nuclear medicine and PET under part B of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule must be accredited in order to receive technical component reimbursement from Medicare.
It is required that you carefully read the Diagnostic Modality Accreditation Program Overview for a summary of the accreditation process and the modality-specific program requirements before applying for accreditation.
Facilities that have applied for the Nuclear Medicine and PET Accreditation Program will read these documents and use the forms to gather data that will be entered into the online testing package before the images are sent for review. Please note that these forms should not be submitted to the ACR for accreditation.
The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) calls for all providers of CT, MRI, breast MRI, nuclear medicine, and PET exams that bill under Part B of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule to be accredited by Jan. 1, 2012, in order to receive payment for the technical component of these services. Currently, the CMS/MIPPA mandates apply to outpatient facilities only, NOT to hospitals. Per MIPPA, the ACR will perform unannounced site surveys to validate compliance with accreditation criteria. The ACR strongly advises that sites use the documents below to gather and organize their information for these site surveys.