Purpose and Scope

St. 1985, c. 628 requires certain health insurance plans to provide benefits for the expense of cardiac rehabilitation treatment. St. 1985, c. 628 also provides that, in order to be included in such mandatory coverage, cardiac rehabilitation treatment must meet standards promulgated by the Commissioner of Public Health. The purpose of105 CMR 143.000 is to set forth the standards which cardiac rehabilitation treatment must meet under St. 1985, c. 628. The standards are intended to prescribe the basic programcomponents for cardiac rehabilitation, including the baseline characteristics of candidates for cardiac rehabilitation. They do not prescribe a set course of treatment to individual patients nor do they define the medical necessity of the treatment for individual patients. Those aspects of cardiac rehabilitation are properly in the realm of the patient's physician and the program's professional staff, as well as any additional standards which third party payors may set.