Welcome to the official website of the ICANL. Accreditation is a voluntary process, although reimbursement policies have been enacted throughout the United States by Medicare and other providers that require ICANL accreditation. This website provides access to general information, technical articles, reimbursement policies, and a list of accredited laboratories for the ICANL.

UnitedHealthcare Publishes Online Listing of Accredited Imaging Providers

As part of UnitedHealthcareOnline.com, a resource for physicians and other health care professionals, a listing of accredited imaging providers is now available. The detailed listing provides the names and addresses of the accredited providers, as well as the areas in which they are accredited and the corresponding expiration dates.

View the list of accredited providers >>
The Imaging Accreditation page of UnitedHealthcareOnline.com >>

CHANGE IN POLICY: DELAYED LABORATORIES
The following policy will be applied to all application deadlines occurring after September 1, 2008.

Upon receiving a delayed accreditation decision, the laboratory will:

• have one year to provide the additionally requested documentation demonstrating adherence to the Standards as outlined in the accreditation notification letter
• be permitted to submit one set of delay material to be reviewed by the applicable IAC division, free of charge
• be assessed a $200 review fee if, after providing the additional material, the laboratory still has not demonstrated compliance and further information is required
• have a maximum of only three delay material submissions to demonstrate compliance; if continued non-compliance is documented after review of the three resubmissions, the laboratory will be required to fully reapply for accreditation and undergo a complete application review. (Note: Each testing area in which a lab applies is considered independent and allowed a total of three submissions each.)
• All accreditation fees are non-refundable and will be due at the time of subsequent application submissions.

To learn more, please see Change In Policy: Delay Status, appearing in the Autumn 2008 issue of the IAC newsletter. >>

Accreditation Mandate Included in New Medicare Bill
IAC Commends the U.S. Congress for Passing the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act

JULY 2008 | The U.S. Congress passed and upheld the Patients and Providers Act on July 9th and 15th, 2008. The bill requires that by 2012, providers of advanced diagnostic imaging services, inclusive of Nuclear Medicine, MR, CT, and PET, must obtain accreditation as a condition for reimbursement. In addition, it establishes a two year voluntary program to collect data regarding physician compliance with appropriateness criteria in order to determine the appropriateness of advanced diagnostic imaging services furnished to Medicare beneficiaries.

For details, please read the article on the IAC newsletter. >>

UnitedHealth Group Extends Deadline Requiring Accreditation for Nuclear Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology and PET Imaging

AUGUST 21, 2008 | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UnitedHealth Group (UnitedHealthcare), regarding its announcement requiring all participating, freestanding imaging facilities and physician offices performing nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology, and PET procedures to apply for accreditation as a condition for reimbursement, has extended its original March 1, 2008 deadline for this requirement until the fourth quarter of 2009. Read more >>

Anthem Health Plans of Virginia, Inc. d/b/a Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and its HMO Affiliate

APRIL 2008 | Anthem Health Plans of Virginia, Inc. d/b/a Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and its HMO Affiliates issued an announcement that providers that perform or conduct any CT, CTA, MRI, MRA, MRS, PET and/or Nuclear/Nuclear Cardiology studies shall be accredited by the American College of Radiology (ACR) or Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) for each piece of equipment utilized in such studies.

Select Anthem Health Plans of Virginia from the ICANL list of Payment Policies.>>

Attention Nuclear Laboratories Using New Technologies:

The ICANL Board of Directors has agreed to accept applications from laboratories utilizing new technologies and other novel imaging approaches that to date are not included in any guidelines published by the professional societies. These laboratories will be eligible for a one year provisional accreditation while undergoing additional review. Read More.>>

To view the updated ASNC guidelines for stresstesting, go to www.asnc.org/section_73.cfm

Update: ICANL Case Studies
Effective with the April 1, 2008 application deadline, digital raw data will no longer be required for case study submissions; as of April 1, the preferred method for submitting case study documentation is as processed image data in digital image format, on CD or DVD.
Read more>>

Available now!

The ICANL has created a new series of webcasts entitled Accreditation On Demand. Now you can learn about accreditation at your leisure, 24 hours a day/7 days a week, for FREE. Choose a topic you wish to learn more about, sit back, and listen. Learning about the process of accreditation has never been so easy.
Go to Accreditation On Demand >>

Webinar on Medicare’s Latest Imaging Policies
Check out this special webinar session, “How Will Medicare’s New Imaging Policies On Accreditation and Appropriateness Affect You?” archived from October 14 from 1:30-2:45 pm ET. Provided by Philips Healthcare. Watch the webinar. >>