Evaluation Report
Implementing PCOR To Increase Referral, Enrollment, and Retention in Cardiac Rehabilitation Through Automatic Referral With Care Coordination
Overview
Although interest in nontraditional models of care in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) predated the pandemic, the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) accelerated this interest as Hybrid cardiac rehabilitation (HYCR) emerged as a potentially viable model to address patient and provider safety concerns and to meet demand with a severely taxed healthcare workforce. Interest in HYCR intensified once it began to be reimbursed under the PHe by Medicare and some r private payers.
In March 2022, the TAKEheart team was tasked through a contract modification with convening a HYCR Workgroup to specifically and extensively investigate hospitals' use of and experience with hybrid cardiac rehabilitation (hybrid CR) as one promising strategy for increasing access to CR services among underserved populations who may encounter barriers associated with traditional facility-based CR with the goal of increasing understanding and actionable knowledge of and about the full range of topics and issues that may be expected to impact hospitals’ ability to more widely and effectively use this model and the ability of underserved patients to benefit from its wider use.
Over a six-month participation period, the TAKEheart team engaged in several activities that could be grouped into three main phases: recruitment, operational support, and insight capture and sharing. In the sections that follow, we describe this task by phase including a description of key activities, lessons learned and recommendations for future similar activities.
Acknowledgments
Prepared for:
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Dina Moss, MPA
Michael Harrison, Ph.D.
Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs)
Submitted December 9, 2022 by:
Abt Associates Inc.
In Collaboration with:
Steven J. Keteyian, Ph.D.
