Head Imaging Guidelines

This policy covers head imaging studies (CT, MRI, and nuclear medicine) for a broad range of neurologic and cranial conditions including headache, seizure/epilepsy, dementia, multiple sclerosis, trauma/stroke, CNS infection, aneurysm/AVM, facial palsy, skull‑base and pituitary disorders, and many other head/face symptom complexes. Major requirements and limitations include a recent (within 60 days) face‑to‑face evaluation with a detailed neurologic exam (exceptions for scheduled follow‑up, certain ENT/eye complaints, or if evaluated by the treating neurologist/neurosurgeon), physician review for atypical presentations, generally only one study per anatomic region unless clinically justified, and restricted use of contrast MRI (e.g., MRI brain with contrast generally only to follow a very recent non‑contrast study).

"HD-5: Chiari and Skull-Base Malformation"

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