Cost-Sharing Deters Cardiac Rehabilitation Adherence

More Evidence of Comprehensive Cardiac Rehabilitation Benefits, Even for All-Cause Mortality: Need to Increase Use Worldwide

“…1,6 In the United States, although there are numerous barriers to CR, 1,6 Farah and colleagues 25 recently demonstrated a negative dose-response relationship between cost sharing and CR sessions attended, and greater patient cost sharing was associated with fewer CR sessions attended. 26,27 Certainly, reducing shared costs of CR could increase the chance of successful CR attendance and completion in the United States, [25][26][27] and, indeed, providing financial incentives on an escalating schedule has recently been advocated to facilitate this. 27,28 In addition, the current CR model of centre-based CR is limited by long commutes, transportation, and employment issues; poor infrastructure and capacity; and other obstacles.…”