Cardiac Rehab: What It Is and Why It's Underused
Phases, qualifying events, insurance coverage and the outcomes data that justify the time.
9 min read
Cardiac rehabilitation is a structured, multi-week program of supervised exercise, risk-factor education and behavioral support after qualifying cardiac events.
Qualifying events include MI, CABG, PCI with stent placement, stable angina, heart valve repair or replacement, and stable heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.
Programs run in three phases: inpatient (hospital), outpatient supervised (typically 36 sessions over 12 weeks), and community-based maintenance. Medicare and most commercial plans cover the supervised phase.
Participation reduces all-cause mortality by roughly 20–25% and cardiovascular mortality by more in observational data. Despite this, fewer than one in three eligible patients enrolls.
Barriers are mostly logistical — transportation, scheduling, and lack of automatic referral at discharge. Home-based and hybrid programs are closing the gap.