Abstract 11654: Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced and Cardiac Rehabilitation Participation After Acute Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) improves outcomes after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI-A) program holds participating hospitals accountable for all costs incurred within 90 days of discharge. There is concern that this financial incentive will lead participants to cut back on high-value care, including CR, in order to meet cost targets. We examined whether patients discharged from BPCI-A participating hospitals after an AMI had lower CR utilization compared to non-participating hospitals. Methods: We included patients from a 100% sample of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries discharged home after a hospitalization for AMI during a baseline period (January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017) or an intervention period (October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019). Our exposure was discharge from a hospital participating in BPCI-A. Our outcomes were the proportion attending ≥1 CR session and the mean number of CR sessions attended within 90 days of discharge. We adjusted for hospital, market, and patient level factors, including medical comorbidities. We performed difference-in-change analyses for both outcomes using linear mixed effects models, before and after adjustment for all confounders. Results: The baseline period included 50,274 discharges, with 33.7% from BPCI-A participating hospitals. The intervention period included 27,268 discharges, with 32.9% from participating hospitals. Overall, CR use was 11.3% in the baseline period and 11.7% in the intervention period. There were no differential changes between BPCI-participating and nonparticipating hospitals for either outcome over time ( Table ). Conclusions: Among Medicare patients discharged after an AMI, CR utilization was low, and we observed no difference in utilization associated with hospital participation in BPCI-A.