New CMS program targets heart attacks and strokes

More than 500 healthcare practices are taking part in a CMS pilot program aimed at preventing heart attacks and strokes by using predictive modeling. Physicians using the model will give patients stroke/heart attack risks scores and design treatment plans based on health data. The pilot for the Million Hearts Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk Reduction Model will last for five years and is expected to reach over 3.3 million Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries and involve nearly 20,000 healthcare practitioners.

“The Million Hearts® CVD Risk Reduction Model supports prevention of CVD, improved health outcomes, and healthcare cost savings through systematic implementation of beneficiary risk calculation and stratification,” the agency wrote. “It will provide incentives for organizations to calculate risk for all eligible Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries by using the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) ASCVD 10-year pooled cohort risk calculator to develop risk modification plans based on beneficiary risk profiles.”

Heart disease and stroke are the first and fifth-leading causes of death in America, killing 747,451 in 2014.