Managing the Economic Challenges in the Treatment of Heart Failure

The economics of heart failure (HF) touches all patients with HF, their families, and the physicians and health systems that care for them. HF is specifically targeted by cost-reduction and care quality initiatives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The changing quality assessment and payment landscape is, and will continue to be, challenging for hospitals and HF specialists as they provide care for patients with this debilitating disease. Quality-based payment systems with evolving performance metrics are replacing traditional volume-based fee-for-service models. A critical objective of quality-based models is to improve care and reduce cost, but there are few data to support decision-making on how to improve. CMS payment programs and their implications for health systems treating HF were reviewed at a symposium at the Heart Failure Society of America conference in Nashville, Tennessee on September 15, 2018. This article constitutes the proceedings from that symposium.