GE Healthcare Applauds CMS for Supporting National FDG-PET Coverage Decision

Expanded Medicare coverage of PET scans improves access for patients to needed
cancer diagnosis tool

WAUKESHA, Wis., April 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- GE Healthcare, a global
leader in healthcare technology, supports the recent national coverage
determination (NCD) from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),
expanding coverage for initial testing with positron emission tomography (PET)
for Medicare beneficiaries who are diagnosed with and treated for most solid
tumor cancers.

"I'm very encouraged by the CMS determination that PET scans are 'reasonable
and necessary' for the initial treatment decisions for most solid tumors,"
said Mark Vachon, President and CEO, GE Healthcare Americas. "With this
decision, more patients will have the necessary access to new PET
technologies; therefore, leading to effective treatment options based on the
needs of the individual patient."

Under the National Coverage Determination, Medicare will cover one FDG-PET
study related to initial treatment decisions for beneficiaries who have solid
tumors that are either biopsy proven or are strongly suspected based on other
diagnostic testing. Several tumors are excluded or restricted from this
coverage, including prostate, breast cancer and melanoma.

GE Healthcare also applauds the contribution of the Academy of Molecular
imaging (AMI) on providing the evidence and testimony the CMS requested in
reaching this decision. GE Healthcare continues to support the concept of
evidence-based medicine in all our technology development as exemplified by
the National Oncologic PET Registry (NOPR). NOPR was sponsored by the Academy
of Molecular Imaging (AMI) and managed by the American College of Radiology
(ACR) and ACR Imaging Network (ACRIN). The registry received input from -- and
is endorsed by -- ACR, the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and
Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM).

About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that
are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and
information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems,
performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing
technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to
predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live
their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare
providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological
diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable
a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis,
pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the
United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric
Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people
committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than
100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at
www.gehealthcare.com.

SOURCE GE Healthcare

Jennifer Francis of GE Healthcare, +1-630-338-6426, Jennifer.N.Francis@ge.com