Medicare to cover more brain scans related to Alzheimer’s drugs

Medicare has officially expanded its coverage policy for brain scans that detect a brain plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease, the agency announced on Friday.

Amyloid PET scans are important tools to help determine whether patients with mild cognitive impairment are good candidates for new Alzheimer’s drugs, including Eisai and Biogen’s drug Leqembi, which means there will likely be an increase in demand for the scans as uptake increases.

Previously, Medicare limited coverage for the drug to patients enrolled in clinical studies, and only covered one scan in a patient’s lifetime. The new coverage policy removes those restrictions and delegates decisions about how many scans to cover to regional Medicare administrators.