JAMA study: Heart failure hospitalization rates fall

The rate of hospital admissions for elderly patients in the U.S. fell by nearly 30 percent in the past decade, based on an analysis of Medicare data. This finding, being published today, is viewed as progress against cardiovascular disease and the costs associated with this illness.

The Wall Street Journal: Heart Failure Puts Fewer In Hospital
Hospital admissions for elderly U.S. patients with heart failure fell by nearly 30 percent over a decade, an analysis of federal Medicare data shows, a surprising finding that offers fresh evidence of progress in the battle against cardiovascular disease. The report, being published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to document a decline in admissions in the U.S. for the condition, an enormously costly problem and the most common reason for hospitalization among Medicare beneficiaries (Winslow and Wang, 10/19).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Study Finds Hopeful Sign: Hospitals Stays For Heart Failure Fall 30 Percent During Decade
Hospital stays for heart failure fell a remarkable 30 percent in Medicare patients over a decade, the first such decline in the United States and forceful evidence that the nation is making headway in reducing the billion-dollar burden of a common condition. But the study of 55 million patients, the largest ever on heart failure trends, found only a slight decline in deaths within a year of leaving the hospital, and progress lagged for black men (10/18).

Modern Healthcare: Heart Failure Hospitalization Rates Fall, JAMA Study Says
Hospitalization rates for patients with heart failure fell significantly from 1998 to 2008, saving billions in health care costs, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Using fee-for-service data on more than 55 million Medicare beneficiaries, researchers found a 29.5 percent drop in the risk-adjusted heart failure hospitalization rate over the 10-year period. That steep decline could be due to a number of factors, including improved control of hypertension, a cause of heart failure; decreases in the rates of ischemic heart disease; and growing use of outpatient management of heart failure, according to the study (McKinney, 10/18).