Enhanced lifestyle modification programs cost significantly more per patient than traditional cardiac rehabilitation ($7,176 vs $1,828; P<.05), with net revenues failing to cover costs.
Observational
Yes
What are the per-patient costs and revenues of enhanced lifestyle modification programs compared to traditional cardiac rehabilitation?
Enhanced lifestyle modification programs cost significantly more per patient than traditional cardiac rehabilitation, with net revenues failing to cover costs across all evaluated programs.
Absolute Event Rate: 7176% vs 1828%
p-value: p=< .05
PURPOSE: Inadequate payment to providers for traditional cardiac rehabilitation (CR) and lifestyle modification programs may contribute to low utilization, but little systematic evidence exists. This article estimates and compares the per-patient costs and revenues for 3 types of secondary prevention programs: the Dr Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease (Ornish), the Benson-Henry Mind/Body Medical Institute's Cardiac Wellness Program (M/BMI), and CR. METHODS: The authors developed an Excel spreadsheet template for the costs of a secondary prevention program and calibrated it to 7 programs that provided the necessary data. The calibration was based on budgets, cost accounting, statistical reports, and structured interviews (in person or by telephone). RESULTS: The 4 lifestyle programs (2 Ornish and 2 M/BMI) cost almost 4 times as much per patient as the 3 traditional CR programs (means of 7, 176 and 1, 828, respectively; difference P <. 05). The Ornish program costs averaged more than twice those of M/BMI (9, 895 and 4, 458, respectively; difference P <. 10). Medicare-allowed charges (including co-payments) were 5, 650 for Ornish, 4, 800 for M/BMI, and about 32. 50 per session or 683 overall for CR. CONCLUSIONS: Programs achieved the lowest costs per patient by carefully matching program capacity to demand. In none of the programs did net revenues cover costs. The findings suggest that 4 patients could attend a traditional CR program for the cost of 1 patient in an enhanced program.
Lee et al. (Sun,) conducted a observational in Cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention. Enhanced lifestyle modification programs (Ornish and M/BMI) vs. Traditional cardiac rehabilitation (CR) was evaluated on Per-patient costs (p=< .05). Enhanced lifestyle modification programs cost significantly more per patient than traditional cardiac rehabilitation ($7,176 vs $1,828; P<.05), with net revenues failing to cover costs.