Cardiac Rehabilitation Collaborative (CRC)

The Million Hearts^® Cardiac Rehabilitation Collaborative (CRC) is an open forum of multi-disciplinary professionals taking action to help at least 70% of eligible patients participate in cardiac rehabilitation (CR).

The CRC meets virtually on a quarterly basis to exchange information, ideas, and resources to advance progress across strategies outlined in the CRC Action Plan. This strategic planning document is updated every year to advance progress towards the CRC target.

What began as a small work group of subject matter experts has developed into an active group of more than 450 members from more than 230 organizations and agencies following a “road map” of action steps and best practices to increase CR referral, enrollment, and adherence. Members include CR professionals, clinicians and health care teams, hospital and health system administrators, CR participants and their family members, payors, innovators, and other stakeholders who are committed to preventing patients from having a secondary cardiovascular event.

Please email MillionHeartsCRC@cdc.gov with your questions about the CRC.

Select Resources Developed or Informed by CRC members

For Hospitals and Health Systems:

• Million Hearts^®/AACVPR Cardiac Rehabilitation Change Package [PDF – 880 KB]
  A quality improvement tool to help teams from hospitals and cardiac rehabilitation programs put systems and strategies in place that promote optimal CR use. It details process improvements that cardiac rehabilitation champions can put into place to improve referral, enrollment, and participation among eligible patients, and includes numerous links to proven interventions and tools.
• TAKEheart: AHRQ’s Initiative to Increase Use of Cardiac Rehabilitation
  AHRQ’s TAKEheart initiative aims to increase the use of CR by eligible patients nationwide. The initiative helps hospitals and health systems carry out evidence-based strategies to improve CR referral, enrollment, and retention.
• Million Hearts^® Cardiac Rehabilitation Communications Toolkit
  A toolkit that includes key messages, educational materials, sample social media messages and graphics, and a link to syndicated content to spread awareness about the value of cardiac rehabilitation and solutions for increasing participation.
• International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (ICCPR) Promoting Patient Participation in Cardiac Rehabilitation: Online Training for Health care Providers
  An online course available in five languages to train inpatient cardiac health care providers on how to encourage their patients to use CR at the bedside.

For Payors:

• Million Hearts^®: Value-Based Insurance Design Opportunities for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Management (Access Passcode: iG2M7$^N)
  The Million Hearts^® webinar held on February 16, 2021, highlighted the value of cardiac rehabilitation (and self-measured blood pressure monitoring) for third-party payers and opportunities for payers to apply Value-Based Insurance Design to increase CR use.
• Cardiac Rehabilitation: A New HEDIS Measure for Heart Health
  A blog from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) describes the new Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) CR measure.
• American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR): Cardiac Rehabilitation Summary for Payers (AACVPR Cardiac Rehabilitation Executive Summary for Payers [PDF – 445 KB])
  Summaries describing CR, eligibility criteria for CR, the value of CR, limitations in CR use, and opportunities for payors to increase CR participation.

For Researchers and Innovators:

• National Institute of Health grants: Increasing Use of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Traditional and Community Settings, Tailoring Cardiac Rehabilitation to Enhance Participation of Older Adults
• October 2020 Million Hearts^® CR Informational Webinars: A collection of online events to communicate the value of CR, the need for new delivery models, and the research that is underway to test new models.
  • New Cardiac Rehabilitation Delivery Models (access passcode: i?bHDc5C)
  • Addressing New Cardiac Rehabilitation Delivery Evidence Gaps (access passcode: g06H1D%i)
  • Cardiac Rehabilitation 101: Needs and Opportunities to Address Disparities (access passcode: !fbf92w$)

See our cardiac rehabilitation webpage to access materials for clinicians and cardiac rehabilitation teams, patients, and other partners.

Resources and Key Publications

• Increasing Cardiac Rehabilitation Participation From 20% to 70%: A Road Map from the Million Hearts Cardiac Rehabilitation Collaborative
  A detailed description of the key action steps and best practices to increase cardiac rehab participation rates from 20% to 70%. (Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2016)
• Tracking Cardiac Rehabilitation Participation and Completion Among Medicare Beneficiaries to Inform the Efforts of a National Initiative
  This observational study identifies Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who were CR eligible in 2016 and assesses CR participation, timely initiation, and completion of cohort through 2017. (Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 2020)
• The Million Hearts Initiative: Catalyzing Utilization of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Accelerating Implementation of New Care Models
  This article summarizes the current and future work of and progress made by Million Hearts^® partners to increase participation in CR. (Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, 2020)
• A Review of the Design and Implementation of a Hybrid Cardiac Rehabilitation Program: An Expanding Opportunity for Optimizing Cardiovascular Care
  This review describes the considerations for the design and implementation of a hybrid CR, a patient-centric program that includes in-person participation with virtual CR and remote CR. (Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention, 2021)
• Million Hearts Cardiac Rehabilitation Think Tank: Accelerating New Care Models
  This article describes the October 2020 proceedings of the Million Hearts^® Cardiac Rehabilitation Think Tank: Accelerating New Care Models, convened to help develop a strategic plan to advance development, validation, and implementation of new cardiac rehabilitation delivery models in the United States. (Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, 2021)