Cardiologists Plan to Cut Heart Failure Hospital Readmits by 20%

By Peggy Peck, Executive Editor, MedPage Today Published: March 28, 2009 Medicare spends $40 billion a year on hospital treatment for heart failure and a sizable chunk of that money is spent on readmissions.

A common reason is a failed hand-off from inpatient to community care, according the American College of Cardiology, which is launching an ambitious initiative to cut the Medicare heart failure readmission rate by 20% by December 2012.

Known as Hospital-to-Home, or H2H, the program is designed to save taxpayer dollars, improve patient care, and help realize the Obama administration's goal of cutting the Medicare readmissions.

But H2H is not confined to Medicare patients. Alfred Bove, M.D., Ph.D., president-elect of the ACC, said the program will target all systems and all patients.