2010 HomeCare Elite Recognizes Top Amedisys Agencies Nationwide

BATON ROUGE, La., Nov. 15, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Amedisys, a leading home health care and hospice company (Nasdaq: AMED), today announced that 285 of its agencies across the country have been named to the 2010 HomeCare Elite™, a compilation of the top-performing home health agencies in the United States. Now in its fifth year, the HomeCare Elite identifies the top 25 percent of agencies and further highlights the top 100 and top 500 agencies overall. Winners are ranked by an analysis of performance measures in quality outcomes, quality improvement and financial performance.

The Amedisys agencies recognized this year include 57 winners that have been acknowledged every year since the inception of the HomeCare Elite list five years ago. The winning agencies also include 26 first-time winners, 49 two-time winners, 94 three-time winners and 59 four-time winners. This recognition comes at the height of National Home Care and Hospice Month which is observed in November each year, raising awareness of the importance of home health care throughout the country.

"The 2010 HomeCare Elite winners continue to demonstrate a commitment to providing their patients with the best possible care while performing at the highest level," said Amanda Twiss, CEO of OCS HomeCare. "We congratulate all the Amedisys locations on being some of the top home care agencies in the country. In addition, we salute all forward-thinking providers who are already working on measuring and improving their performance using OASIS-C outcomes and process measures and HH-CAHPS results. This important data will also be used in identifying the HomeCare Elite in the future."

"Amedisys' HomeCare Elite honors are directly attributable to the high caliber and hard work of our visiting clinicians, who work with great skill and passion to provide quality care to the patients we serve," said Michael Fleming, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Amedisys. "Providing quality care and ensuring continuous quality improvement are at the heart of what our agencies do every day. They strive to do the right thing at the right time for each patient."

The 2010 HomeCare Elite is the only performance recognition of its kind in the home health industry. The 2010 HomeCare Elite is brought to the industry by OCS HomeCare, the leading provider of homecare information, and DecisionHealth, publisher of homecare's most respected independent newsletter Home Health Line. The data used for this analysis were compiled from publicly available information. The entire list of the 2010 HomeCare Elite agencies can be viewed by visiting the OCS HomeCare website at www.ocshomecare.com.

About Amedisys

Amedisys, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) is the nation's leading health care company focused on bringing home the continuum of care. Each day Amedisys delivers personalized health care services to more than 35,000 individual patients and their families, in the comfort of patients' homes. Amedisys has two divisions, home health care and hospice. The Company's state-of-the-art advanced chronic care management programs and leading-edge technology enables it to deliver quality care based upon the latest evidence-based best practices. Amedisys is a recognized innovator, being the first in the industry to equip its clinicians with point-of-care laptop technology and referring physicians with an internet portal that enables real-time coordination of patient care seamlessly. Amedisys also has the industry's first-ever nationwide Care Transitions program. Amedisys Care Transitions is designed to reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions through patient and caregiver health coaching and care coordination, which starts in the hospital and continues throughout completion of the patient's home health plan of care. For more information about the Company, please visit: www.amedisys.com.

About OCS HomeCare

As the industry leader in benchmarking, reporting and analytics, OCS HomeCare empowers home health and hospice organizations with results-driven data intelligence, plus the largest and most accurate comparative database. Homecare providers, payers, associations, government agencies, vendors, and consultants all turn to OCS HomeCare to elevate decision-making, raise the bar on results, and bring home positive outcomes. For more information about OCS HomeCare, please visit www.ocshomecare.com or call 888.325.3396.

About DecisionHealth®

For more than 30 years, DecisionHealth has served as the industry's leading source for news, analysis and instructional guidance with cutting-edge information sources such as Home Health Line, OASIS-C & Outcomes Solutions and Diagnosis Coding Pro for Home Health. Our unique blend of award-winning staff journalists and unmatched access to health care executives, providers, healthcare organization managers and their revenue-cycle staffs enables us to provide solutions, tools and guidance that's relied on by nearly 100,000 home health care and specialty physician practice professionals. For more information, please visit www.decisionhealth.com or call 877.602.3835.

SOURCE Amedisys, Inc.