Heart failure is the number one diagnosis of beneficiaries of Medicare. Hospital readmission rates within six months are 44%, costing ten to thirty billion dollars a year in healthcare costs. Studies have shown patient education improved outcomes, increased self-care behaviors, and decreased hospital readmission rates (Stewart and Horowitz, 2002). The purpose of this study is to compare two groups of CHF patients on hospital readmission rates and quality of life, one group that receives traditional discharge teaching and the other group that received traditional discharge teaching plus a home based follow-up self-care program. The organizing framework for this study is Orem's Theory of self-care. An estimated sample of 100 participants will be drawn from a population of hospital inpatients with a primary diagnosis of CHF from a moderately sized midwestern hospital. The participants will be randomly assigned to either the control group or experimental group that will receive a home based follow-up self-care teaching program. Data will be collected using hospital readmission rates and the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (LHFQ). Findings will provide healthcare professionals with methods to help decrease CHF readmissions in this population.