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A covered PET-CT: how it works now
The commission approval was removed in 2023. Here is what replaced it
Your treating doctor — an oncologist or a haematologist — fills in a form that checks the eligibility criteria and files it in the health insurance platform. Confirmation that the form was registered stands in for approval. That is all.
Many pages still describe the earlier procedure: a file submitted to the insurance house, an expert commission meeting once a month, a decision awaited for weeks. Since 1 June 2023 that is no longer how it works. If you read the version with a file and a commission somewhere else, it is left over from another era.
What you have to do
- Sign the consent declaration for the scan. It is the first criterion on the form and the only one that depends on you.
- The doctor fills in the rest, in the system. You no longer submit any file to the insurance house.
- Ask your doctor when the form was confirmed, so you know when the window started.
- Book at a centre under contract, inside the window. If you can see you will not manage it, tell your doctor early.
The 30-day window
The form states the period in which the scan is to be done, and it cannot be longer than 30 days. The start day may be the day the form is confirmed in the platform or a later one, but no more than 30 days after that confirmation.
This is the number that matters most in practice: if the window passes without you booking, the form has to be filed again.
The eligibility criteria
There is not one criterion but one form per clinical situation — dozens of them, on different indications: identifying a primary tumour that cannot be found otherwise, assessing the response to treatment, and so on. The treating doctor is the one who checks them, with your documents in front of them.
We deliberately do not reproduce them here. A list of clinical criteria read alone, at night, can either discourage you for nothing or push you to ask for a scan that does not fit your case — and the decision is not yours to make anyway.
Where it is done
Only at providers under contract, and the scan may be performed only on the basis of the confirmation that the form was registered. County health insurance houses publish the list of centres they hold contracts with — look for it on your own county house's page.
Questions that had no answer
Do I have to submit a file to the insurance house?
No. Since 1 June 2023, confirmation that the specific form was registered stands in for approval. The file submitted to the insurance house and the expert commission were the earlier procedure.
What do I pay for a PET-CT?
Nothing, if it is done through the national programme, at a provider under contract, on the basis of the form confirmed in the platform.
How long until I actually have it?
There is no longer any wait for the commission's monthly meeting. Two steps remain: confirming the form in the platform, and booking at a centre within a window of at most 30 days. How long the booking takes depends on the centre, not on an approval.
What if the 30-day window passes?
The form has to be filed again. That is why it is worth telling your doctor early if you have not managed to book, rather than after it has expired.
And if I do not meet the criteria?
The form is precisely the check on them. If your doctor cannot confirm the criteria for your situation, the scan is not covered through the programme — ask them what other imaging makes sense in your case.
How we know
Removing the expert commission's approval comes from Government Decision no. 489/2023, which amends GD no. 423/2023 on the national health programmes, applicable from 1 June 2023. The forms, the eligibility criteria and the 30-day window are in Order of the CNAS president no. 919/2023, which amends Order no. 438/2023.
CNAS Order 919/2023, with the PET-CT forms (PDF)Checked on 05 Aug 2026. Rules can change. If you found something else at your county house, tell us.