[Reimbursement of the PET in oncology in Europe: a questionnaire based survey]

The discussion in Germany about the reimbursement of the (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) in oncology should make use of the experience from the other European countries.

A questionnaire was sent to 23 PET-institutions in Europe, outside from Germany, in January 2003. The questions were about the number of PET-institutions, the regulations for reimbursement, the accepted indications, the recognized types of PET-machines and the level of reimbursement.

16 PET-institutions from 10 different countries answered. The relation of PET-institutions to inhabitants ranged from 1:500,000 (B) and 1:1,000,000 (D, A, CH) to approximately 1:4,000,000 (I, E, F, NL). In Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Italy, Finland, Switzerland, and Spain reimbursement was possible and a broad spectrum of indications was accepted, respectively. The reimbursement was not restricted to official indications. In Germany and Austria PET was not generally covered for the patients insured by the national health insurance. An annual sum of approximately 450,000 euro was granted to the recognized PET-institutions in Belgium and France. In Denmark the clinics and their PET-centres were owned by the government, PET was part of the clinical routine oncology. If PET was separately covered the average level of reimbursement for the whole-body PET using a full-ring detector was 1200 euro. The reimbursement of the coincidence-gammacamera differed from the "dedicated" PET in most European countries.

In Europe there is an increasing tendency to cover the well documented PET indications in oncology.