Heart disease is the top cause of death in the U.S. today, and the leading cause of death for people who have diabetes. The statistics surrounding the prevalence of heart disease are staggering, and yet, many of its major risk factors are preventable, such as obesity, sedentary behavior, smoking, and a poor diet.

To help Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) members who are most at risk for heart disease and have diabetes, this spring we will launch a pilot program in partnership with the Lifespan Cardiovascular Institute (CVI). The program will offer cardiac rehabilitation as preventive care, so it doesn’t have a cost share. It’s based on the CVI’s existing cardiac rehabilitation program which is designed to enhance the well-being of diabetic members with a focus on reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, but which was previously only available to patients who experienced cardiac events.

The program is centered around a lifestyle-focused cardiac rehabilitation program created by Dr. Dean Ornish that has seen dramatically better results than many “standard” cardiac programs, with participants seeing lower cholesterol and blood pressure and better overall health while becoming part of a larger group with a real sense of camaraderie, further enhancing the chances of success. It’s a four-part program, encompassing a diet of whole foods, exercise, mindfulness, and community.

This nine-week program will teach participants who have unhealthy BMI (over 30) and A1c (over 7) levels about healthy lifestyle behavior changes that can help to mitigate their cardiovascular risks. Participants must also have a diabetes diagnosis and no history of cardiac events, including stent placement, bypass surgery, myocardial infarction (within a year), systolic heart failure, or valve replacement.

BCBSRI is helping PCPs identify and enroll eligible patients who would benefit from this program. The pilot is being offered at the CVI’s East Greenwich location and requires in-person participation. If you believe you have patients who would benefit, you can call the CVI at (401) 793-5810 or (401) 606-4080 to learn more.

A new look at an old health problem

We’re encouraged and hopeful that by offering a program that helps these members address heart and cardiac health as preventive care, we can help them avoid the cardiac event in the first place by proactively reducing the cardiovascular risks often associated with diabetes. But let’s step back for a minute and ask ourselves a bigger question – what if we as a profession came at this problem from a different perspective? What if we focused our attention on heart disease the way that we’ve addressed COVID over the last couple of years? If you think about it, in a very short time, we quickly built brand new systems and communities to tackle and adjust to a disease which we had never heard of prior to late 2019.

Obesity is not a new problem. It’s quite pervasive – consider for example that roughly half of all Rhode Islanders are considered overweight or obese. And it impacts numerous conditions and other parts of the healthcare spectrum and beyond, from medical expenses to mental health, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, to a wide array of social and economic impacts as well. Yet, it’s preventable, as mentioned above. It’s time for us to adjust and start thinking about how we treat it differently.

Can we apply the new standards that we’ve established for COVID to another serious health problem? Obviously, that isn’t something we’re going to solve here, in this column, but let’s consider it food for thought.

This month, we recognize several healthcare-related observances, including Alcohol Awareness Month, Autism Awareness Month, National Public Health Week (April 4-10), World Health Day (April 7), and Medical Lab Professionals Week (April 25-29), among others. And of course, let’s not forget Administrative Professionals Week, April 25-29. As always, thank you for your partnership and for all you do to help our members stay safe and healthy.