This year alone in the United States, more than 400,000 new cases of heart failure will be diagnosed, along with numerous hospital admissions of patients previously diagnosed. We are all aware heart disease is chronic. Heart failure is a disease of epidemic proportions, affecting approximately 3 million Americans. Heart failure can be effectively treated and managed with drugs, and heart failure patients can lead relatively normal lives. Heart failure is the number one discharge diagnosis among Medicare beneficiaries.
Heart failure becomes more common as people age.
Some 80 percent are over age 65. More than 20 percent are not being fully treated. There are approximately 8200 Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure with a total of about 12,400 Medicare inpatient claims each year in Wisconsin. Physicians are key to treating heart failure and improving rates. Baseline data indicates doctors in Wisconsin acute care hospitals are assessing for ACE inhibitor use about 83.2 percent of the time.