Medicare pumps up cardiac rehab: Value well-documented

Cardiologists hope broader coverage for outpatient cardiac rehabilitation will spur physicians to refer more heart patients.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews correspondent. Sept. 4, 2006.

Patients who are hospitalized for a serious heart problem face a critical time upon discharge. Often they feel fragile and scared as they leave the cardiac unit's monitoring and support to return home. They may have questions about what they can do and what they should eat, or they may be thinking for the first time about quitting smoking.

The first few weeks and months of recovery are a time of opportunity and uncertainty, a time when outpatient cardiac rehabilitation can serve as a bridge to help heart patients cross from the acute care setting back into the community.

Cardiac rehab can make the difference between resuming a normal life, possibly even a better life, or heading toward another heart attack. Studies have shown that a physician-supervised program of prescribed exercise, nutrition counseling, stress reduction and medication can sometimes slow, or even stop, the progression of heart disease -- the nation's No. 1 killer of men and women.

Yet despite its well-documented benefits, cardiac rehabilitation is often given short shrift by public and private insurers and the medical community, according to many cardiologists. Reimbursement tends to be low, insurance coverage is spotty, and physicians fail to refer many eligible patients.

Cardiologists say the federal government's Medicare coverage policy has been part of the problem by setting too-narrow parameters on eligibility for cardiac rehab. But a recent policy change and a pilot project could remove some of the blockages, allowing more patients to flow into these programs.