Abstract
In an effort to assess lifestyle modification approaches for CHD, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the Lifestyle Modification Program Demonstration (LMPD) in 1999 under a congressional mandate. This payment demonstration was designed to test the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of providing either the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease® (Ornish) or the Mind/Body Medical Institute’s Cardiac Wellness Program (M/BMI) (founded by Dr. Herbert Benson) for Medicare beneficiaries with coronary heart disease. The program enrolled 589 Medicare beneficiaries with at least one of four qualifying cardiac events: angina, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), cardiac artery bypass surgery (CABG), or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (i.e., stent placement). Researchers at Brandeis University’s Schneider Institutes for Health Policy performed a process and outcomes evaluation. Separate reports have examined the costs of lifestyle services (Lee et al., in press), selection effects in enrollment (Bhalotra et al. 2009), impact on behaviors (Razavi et al. 2009), impacts on cardiac risk factors (Stason et al. 2009), and utilization and mortality benefits of cardiac rehabilitation (Suaya et al. 2007, 2009).