Projects
Million Hearts Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk-Reduction Model
2017–2023
Project Overview
Objective
Mathematica and its partner RAND are helping CMS determine whether a quality improvement model with performance-based payments reduced first-time heart attacks and strokes among Medicare beneficiaries.
Project Motivation
Our role is to help CMS determine if the model was successful, which means assessing (1) whether and how the model reduced first-time heart attacks and strokes and (2) whether the model reduced Medicare spending on hospitalizations and post-acute care for cardiovascular events enough to fully offset model payments.
Partners in Progress
RAND
University of Colorado
Prepared For
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Mathematica helps Medicare assess whether a quality improvement model with performance-based payments reduced heart attacks and strokes for Medicare beneficiaries.
Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. In 2017, CMS launched the Million Hearts Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model to reduce the incidence of first-time heart attacks and strokes among Medicare beneficiaries ages 40 to 79. The model paid providers for assessing each of their Medicare patients’ risk of having a heart attack and stroke over 10 years, and then made additional payments to organizations that successfully reduced risk for their high-risk patients (those with a 30 percent or higher risk of a heart attack or stroke over 10 years). CMS tested the model in a rigorous randomized trial that included primary care practices, cardiology practices, health centers, and hospitals throughout the country. Our evaluation uses mixed methods to assess whether and how the model improved preventive cardiovascular care and reduced first-time heart attacks and strokes.
Evidence & Insights From This Project
News
CMS’s Million Hearts® Model Lowered Heart Disease and Stroke Incidence by Nearly 4 Percent Among High- and Medium-Risk Patients
A final report from Mathematica and collaborators at RAND and the University of Colorado found that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Million Hearts® Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Reduction Model reduced the incidence of first-time heart attacks and strokes for high- and medium-risk Medicare beneficiaries by 3 to 4 percent and reduced the death rate by more than 4 percent.
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