CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
2026 Million Hearts®
23 organizations received mini grants to support the expanded use of policies, systems, and services that enhance, optimize, or expand cardiac rehabilitation (CR) referral, participation, and/or completion. Each organization will implement their Million Hearts®-awarded project between April–July 2026. They intend to employ a breadth of approaches to advance cardiac rehabilitation participation, including reducing out-of-pocket costs for patients, educating referring providers on the benefits of CR, and providing incentives for patient participation. Participants (see below) look forward to sharing lessons learned from this project in the future.
25 organizations received mini grants to support the expanded use of policies, systems, and services that enhance, optimize, or expand cardiac rehabilitation referral, participation, and/or completion. Each organization will implement their Million Hearts®-awarded project between April–July 2026. They intend to employ a breadth of approaches to advance cardiac rehabilitation participation, including reducing out-of-pocket costs for patients, educating referring providers on the benefits of CR, and providing incentives for patient participation. Participants (see below) look forward to sharing lessons learned from this project in the future. Note: More participants will be added to the list soon.
American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR) – Chicago, IL
Produce two to four brief patient testimonial videos to demonstrate CR impact and motivate patients to participate and complete. Promote videos nationally.
AACVPR – Chicago, IL
Support an early career professional to conduct a focused assessment of data from the AACVPR Registry. The professional will be selected through a competitive process, and the assessment will address current gaps affecting CR enrollment, adherence, and/or completion.
AACVPR – Chicago, IL
Examine factors associated with patient adherence to CR using AACVPR Registry data. Findings from patient- and program-level data analysis will identify barriers to adherence and opportunities to improve CR delivery.
AdventHealth Tampa – Tampa, FL
Reduce barriers to patient participation in CR through providing copay/self‑pay financial assistance, transportation/parking support, and a quick‑start enrollment workflow including orientation within 48 hours and start by ≤10 days after referral.
Ascension St. Vincent – Indianapolis, IN
Simplified referral and enrollment workflow across affiliated sites, beginning with two pilot sites. Centralize referral systems and use designated referral teams.
Baptist Health – Montgomery, AL
Project Community Cardiac Care (CCC): Increase referrals via referral trees, provide bedside consultations to encourage patient enrollment, provide patient incentives and remove transportation barriers, purchase seated bikes for patients with heart failure and limited mobility, periodic patient follow-up and goal measurement after completion.
BayCare – Clearwater, FL
Educational and technical support of newly launched Virtual CR: Update electronic medical record (EMR) for automatic referrals, streamline workflow to reduce delay until first CR appointment, provider education and support to refer, patient education, outreach to eligible patients not yet enrolled. Prioritize patients who live far away and those with heart failure diagnosis.
Beth Israel Lahey Health – Cambridge, MA
Population-level CR engagement and retention initiative: implement self-referral workflows, utilize predictive churn-risk model to identify patients at risk of dropping out and prompt intervention (via automatic reminders, patient education, caregiver engagement), outreach to improve referrals to flexible delivery options (hybrid and virtual CR).
Geisinger – Danville, PA
Improve referrals and enrollment into virtual CR via unified referral and outreach workflow. Use data to determine populations who are eligible but under-referred and under-enrolled. Focus on patients living >30 miles from site and those with social vulnerability to eliminate barriers.
University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute – Cleveland, OH
Increase enrollment through focus on Phase 1 improvements including remote, asynchronous CR education automatically assigned to patients; staff education to encourage patient completion of educational modules; patient handoff from Phase 1 to 2 via Epic. Pilot at 2 sites with plans to expand.
Health Partners Institute – Minnesota (larger, urban hospitals in/near Minneapolis)
Provide rewards and incentives to patients at completion of 12, 24, and 36 weeks. Provide healthy snacks to encourage patient attendance at education sessions.
Health Partners Institute – Western Wisconsin (small, rural hospitals)
Reduce transportation barriers for patients through providing gas cards and connections to other community transportation resources.
Holland Hospital – Holland, MI
Develop provider education and referral decision tree. Engage patients with heart failure early via group orientation and rewards for attendance. Provide patient scholarships and tiered incentives to increase participation.
MacNeal Hospital – Berwyn, IL
Screen new CR patients for frailty and enroll into Foundations of Strength class paired with nutrition education. Provide care coordination and home strength kits.
MacNeal Hospital – Berwyn, IL
Develop and disseminate a national tool to collect information about internship programs within CR settings and determine whether internships are associated with improved utilization and operational processes.
North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) – Phoenix, AZ
ENGAGE-CR: Virtual workforce training for Tobacco Treatment Specialists (TTS) on CR referral approaches, care coordination, and role of TTS within referral systems. Define workflows and strengthen pathways to referral.
Northeast Georgia Medical Center – Gainesville, GA
Tiered patient rewards and incentive system to provide patients with at-home health monitoring and exercise equipment. Focus on rural and underserved health services areas.
Providence Heart and Vascular Institute – Portland, OR
Pilot an accelerated CR program at one site in Oregon that commonly cares for rural and working patients in need of more flexible programming. Patients will complete >91 minutes of care per site visit, equating to two sessions.
Richmond Health Network / RUMC – Staten Island, NY
Support a dedicated staff liaison to educate providers and ensure EMR-based referral processes are in place. Incentivize hospital units to participate with lunch & learns and rewards. Pilot to expand to other New York City hospitals
UC Health – Cincinnati, OH
Implement Phase 1 CR at one satellite hospital with potential to expand to all sites. Staff from pilot site will shadow teams at an established Phase 1 program to learn workflows. Develop patient educational materials for pilot site and standardize referral workflows in EMR.
UNC Rex Healthcare – Raleigh, NC
Allow more flexibility to meet patient and clinical needs by adding hybrid and in-person CR to current virtual offering. Prioritize rural and heart failure patients.
WakeMed – Raleigh, NC
Increase CR enrollment and participation through automatic referrals, provider education and engagement, launching a self-referral portal, and outreach to patients who are eligible but not enrolled.
University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute – Cleveland, OH
Increase enrollment through focus on Phase 1 improvements including remote, asynchronous CR education automatically assigned to patients; staff education to encourage patient completion of educational modules; patient handoff from Phase 1 to 2 via the Epic EMR. Pilot at 2 sites with plans to expand.