A Report on Health Resource Use in Internal Radiation Therapy with 131I-MIBG

Abstract

Internal radiation therapy using 3-iodobenzylguanidine (131I) injection (131I-MIBG injection) will be applied in actual clinical practice soon. However, the NHI medical technical fee for the use of 131I-MIBG injection has not yet been set. The Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine surveyed health resource use for internal radiation therapy using 131I via questionnaires sent to medical institutions that have used 131I-MIBG injection. Results showed that the necessary cost per patient is 1,912,671 JPY, which was based on the Draft Proposal for Medical Examination Value (Ver. 7.2) of the Japanese Health Insurance Federation for Surgery. 131I-MIBG injection is supposed to be administered once to each patient and the patient is followed up for 4 months after administration. The fee per treatment is calculated to be 478,168 JPY per month. The appropriate NHI medical technical fee is thus considered to be 47,817 points per month per patient per treatment, which can be claimed up to 4 times.