{"id":31567,"date":"2025-08-01T07:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?page_id=31567"},"modified":"2026-01-30T07:22:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:22:53","slug":"cardiac-rehabilitation-cre","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/cardiac-rehabilitation-cre\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiac Rehabilitation (CRE)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The percentage of persons 18 years and older who attended cardiac rehabilitation following a qualifying cardiac event, including myocardial infarction (MI), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), heart and heart\/lung transplantation or heart valve repair\/replacement. Four rates are reported:<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Initiation. The percentage of persons who attended 2 or more sessions of cardiac rehabilitation within 30 days after a qualifying event.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Engagement 1. The percentage of persons who attended 12 or more sessions of cardiac rehabilitation within 90 days after a qualifying event.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Engagement 2. The percentage of persons who attended 24 or more sessions of cardiac rehabilitation within 180 days after a qualifying event.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Achievement. The percentage of persons who attended 36 or more sessions of cardiac rehabilitation within 180 days after a qualifying event.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why it Matters<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a medical program that aims to help patients regain cardiovascular health and heart function after a cardiac-related event. Most commonly delivered in outpatient settings, CR programs provide exercise training, healthy lifestyle education and stress counseling <sup>(1)<\/sup>. The comprehensive components of CR promote physical and psychological recovery, reduce cardiovascular risk and mortality and prevent secondary cardiac events <sup>(2,3)<\/sup>. Additional improvements such as exercise tolerance, medical regimen compliance and smoking cessation have also been associated with participation <sup>(4)<\/sup>.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Following a qualifying cardiac event, time to initiation is an important factor of adherence, completion and outcomes. Referral for CR can be provided as early as pre-discharge or at the first follow-up visit <sup>(5)<\/sup>. Depending on the patient\u2019s condition and previous functional status, physical activity can begin immediately after discharge with daily walking; aerobic training can begin within 1\u20132 weeks and resistance training can begin within 2\u20134 weeks <sup>(6)<\/sup>. All factors considered, the ACC defines CR initiation as one or more CR sessions within 21 days of the qualifying cardiac event <sup>(7)<\/sup>.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">There is a strong dose-response relationship for CR: Attending more sessions is linked with improved outcomes. A national study of Medicare beneficiaries found that mortality rates at 5 years after discharge for a qualifying cardiac event or condition were 8% lower for patients who attended CR than for patients who did not. When comparing CR attendees, patients who attended 25 or more sessions were 3% less likely to die than patients who attended 24 or fewer sessions <sup>(8)<\/sup>. An additional study of a sample of Medicare beneficiaries found that patients who attended 36 sessions of CR had a lower risk of death than patients who attended 1, 12 and 24 sessions by 47%\u201358%, 22%\u201329% and 14%\u201318%, respectively <sup>(9)<\/sup>. The recommended doses of 36 sessions and 25 sessions have shown to be meaningful. Both thresholds are associated with improved survival rates and decreased cardiac risk factors <sup>(10)<\/sup>.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association (ACC\/AHA) recommend CR for patients who have experienced MI, CABG, PCI, coronary revascularization or coronary artery and other atherosclerotic vascular disease. Participation in CR can decrease recurrent cardiac-related events, reduce mortality by more than 12%, reduce hospitalizations by 20%\u201330% and improve quality of life <sup>(11)<\/sup>.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">CR is associated with decreased hospitalizations and health system costs. Compared with usual care, CR cost-effectiveness ratios range from $1,065 to $71,755 per quality-adjusted life year <sup>(12)<\/sup>. Per person, cardiac rehabilitation saves approximately $4,950\u2013$9,200 per year of life saved <sup>(13)<\/sup>.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Despite the Class IA recommendation and stated benefits, CR is historically underused, with participation ranging from 19%\u201334% nationally, with geographic variances <sup>(13)<\/sup>.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-teams=\"true\">Historical Results \u2013 National Averages<\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The percentage of persons 18 years and older who attended cardiac rehabilitation following a qualifying cardiac event, including myocardial infarction (MI), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), heart and heart\/lung transplantation or heart valve repair\/replacement. Four rates are reported:\u00a0 Initiation. The percentage of persons who attended 2 or more sessions of cardiac [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"parent":733,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31567","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cardiac Rehabilitation (CRE) - NCQA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Potentially Harmful Drug-Disease Interactions in the Elderly and Use of High-Risk Medications in the Elderly.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/cardiac-rehabilitation-cre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiac Rehabilitation (CRE) - NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Potentially Harmful Drug-Disease Interactions in the Elderly and Use of High-Risk Medications in the Elderly.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/cardiac-rehabilitation-cre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T12:22:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NCQA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/cardiac-rehabilitation-cre\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/cardiac-rehabilitation-cre\/\",\"name\":\"Cardiac Rehabilitation (CRE) - NCQA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T11:00:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T12:22:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"Potentially Harmful Drug-Disease Interactions in the Elderly and Use of High-Risk Medications in the Elderly.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/cardiac-rehabilitation-cre\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/cardiac-rehabilitation-cre\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/cardiac-rehabilitation-cre\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report Cards\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Health Plans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"State of Health Care Quality Report\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Cardiac Rehabilitation (CRE)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"description\":\"Measuring quality. 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