Economic and social impact of increased cardiac rehabilitation uptake and cardiac telerehabilitation in Belgium – a cost–benefit analysis

AbstractBackground: Cardiac rehabilitation for ischaemic heart disease effectively reduces cardiovascular readmission rate and mortality. Current uptake rates however, remain low. This study assesses the social and economic impact of increasing centre-based cardiac rehabilitation uptake and the additional value of cardiac telerehabilitation using cost–benefit analysis (CBA) in Belgium.Methods: Cost–benefit analysis was conducted to analyse three scenarios: (1) current situation: 20% uptake rate of cardiac rehabilitation; (2) alternative scenario one: 40% uptake rate of cardiac rehabilitation; and (3) alternative scenario two: 20% uptake of cardiac rehabilitation and 20% uptake of both cardiac rehabilitation and telerehabilitation. Impacts considered included cardiac (tele)rehabilitation programme costs, direct inpatient costs, productivity losses and burden of disease.Results: Compared to the current situation, there was a net total monetised benefit of 9.18 M€ and 9.10 M€ for scenarios one and two, respe...