The VA and 13 healthcare systems, including Kaiser Permanente and Intermountain, pledge to enhance Veteran care through health data sharing. U.S. Senators introduce the Sustainable Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Services in the Home Act, aiming to make telehealth-based cardiac and pulmonary rehab services reimbursable under Medicare. This initiative seeks to combat heart disease, a leading cause of death, and improve access to care for millions of patients. Studies show virtual rehab programs offer similar benefits to in-person services, and home-based cardiac rehab reduces hospitalization rates, making these innovations vital for public health.
The VA and 13 healthcare systems, including Kaiser Permanente and Intermountain, have made a commitment to enhance the Veteran experience by sharing health data.
Three U.S. senators have introduced a new bill that would enable Medicare beneficiaries to access cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services through telehealth from the comfort of their homes.
In the midst of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), restrictions on in-person care made it challenging for Americans to receive necessary medical attention. In response, government agencies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented several flexibilities to ensure continuous care. One such flexibility temporarily allowed for the reimbursement of cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation programs under Medicare when delivered or supervised virtually in patients’ homes. However, this temporary provision ended on May 11, coinciding with the lifting of the PHE.
On October 4, U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) introduced the Sustainable Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Services in the Home Act, with the aim of making this flexibility a permanent feature. If this bill becomes law, Medicare will continue to reimburse cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services delivered via telehealth in patients’ homes, starting on January 1, 2024.
Amy Klobuchar emphasized the importance of combating heart disease, a leading cause of death in the United States, by making proven virtual cardiac rehabilitation services accessible to Medicare patients. This legislation not only simplifies access to care but also has the potential to save lives. In 2021, approximately 695,000 people in the U.S. lost their lives due to heart disease, constituting 17.4 percent of all deaths that year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Additionally, the American Lung Association reported that in 2020, 12.5 million adults, or 5 percent of the population, received a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Marsha Blackburn highlighted recent studies that demonstrated the lower mortality risk associated with patients participating in virtual cardiac rehabilitation programs compared to those who did not. This legislation aims to ensure access to high-quality care for patients with heart and lung conditions. A study published in April 2022 found that virtual and hybrid cardiac rehabilitation programs provided similar benefits to patients as in-person services. The study, published in the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, compared different care delivery models for cardiac rehab. Researchers from UC San Francisco collected data on patients enrolled in cardiac rehab between October 2019 and May 2021. They found that hybrid and virtual care methods yielded similar clinical benefits to in-person care, with comparable outcomes in blood pressure control, walking ability, and anxiety levels among the different groups.
Furthermore, research indicates that home-based cardiac rehabilitation is more effective than center-based services in reducing hospitalization rates, even among medically complex patients. A study published in JAMA Network Open in September 2022 included 2,556 cardiovascular disease patients, with 48.5 percent receiving home-based cardiac rehab and 51.5 percent receiving center-based cardiac rehab. Researchers evaluated 12-month all-cause hospitalization rates, medication adherence, and cardiovascular risk factor control for both groups. The findings showed that those who received home-based cardiac rehab had a 4.8 percent hospitalization rate in the 12 months following the program, compared to 18.1 percent for those who received center-based cardiac rehab. However, medication adherence and cardiovascular risk factor control, including blood pressure and LDL-cholesterol management, were similar between the two groups.
