Note that cardiac rehab is covered by Medicare and I suspect many other forms of health insurance, because its benefits are so certain.
In the CDC study, patients who were more likely to participate in rehabilitation included men, those older than 49 years, Hispanics, married patients, college educated individuals, those with annual incomes of $15,000 or higher, and patients who lived in the middle of a metropolitan area. Employment status and health insurance coverage had no statistically significant effect on whether patients attended rehab.
In 2004, the Mayo Clinic reported: "Cardiac rehabilitation raises your chances of surviving at least three years after a heart attack by more than 50 percent." The Mayo study found that about half of the 1,821 eligible patients in one Minnesota county participated in a rehab program.
And nearly half (48 percent) of the deaths within three years of hospital discharge were attributable to not participating in cardiac rehabilitation. "On average, for patients who participated in cardiac rehab, it was almost as if the heart attack never had happened. They had the same three-year survival as what would be expected from area residents of the same age and sex who had not suffered heart attacks," said Veronique Roger, M.D., the Mayo Clinic cardiologist who led the study. "Increased participation in cardiac rehabilitation could lead to improved survival among a large proportion of heart attack patients." Another finding was that women were less likely to participate in cardiac rehab.
In 2007, research from Brandeis University revealed fewer than one-in-five (18.7 percent) patients get cardiac rehab services after a heart attack or coronary bypass surgery. But, bypass patients are much more likely (31.0 percent) than heart attack patients (13.9 percent) to receive rehabilitation.
The study evaluated Medicare claims data from 267,427 men and women age 65 and older who survived at least 30 days after being released from a hospital following a heart attack or coronary bypass surgery in 1997. Despite Medicare coverage of cardiac rehabilitation services, women participated less than men, older patients less than younger ones, and non-whites much less than whites. There were big geographic differences in use, ranging from 53.5 percent of patients in Nebraska to 6.6 percent in Idaho.
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