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Amedisys Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Hackensack University Medical Center Hospice Agency and Inpatient Unit

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^{Published in Health and Fitness on Tuesday, May 3rd 2011 at 20:21 GMT by Market Wire}  

BATON ROUGE, La.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Amedisys, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED), one of America's leading home health and hospice companies, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the hospice operations of Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC).

"At HUMC, our focus is always on providing the most advanced, top-quality care possible to the people we serve, either directly or by partnering with providers who share our philosophy"

Hospice of Hackensack, with annual revenue of approximately $5 million in 2010, operates one hospice agency and one eight-bed hospice inpatient unit, primarily serving the counties of Bergen and Hudson, but licensed to provide care throughout all counties in New Jersey. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including state regulatory approvals. It is not expected to add materially to Amedisysa™ earnings in 2011.

aAt HUMC, our focus is always on providing the most advanced, top-quality care possible to the people we serve, either directly or by partnering with providers who share our philosophy,a said Dianne Aroh, Executive Vice President, Chief Nursing and Patient Care Officer at HUMC. aWe believe this vision is shared by Amedisys, and by completing this transaction and working together to streamline the transition of care to our patients, we will strengthen the end-of-life care being provided to our community.a

William F. Borne, Chief Executive Officer of Amedisys, Inc., stated, aProviding high quality patient care is one of our companya™s main operating tenets, and we are excited about the opportunity to extend our high quality hospice service into New Jersey. We have worked closely with HUMC since acquiring their home health operations in 2009 to provide patients a seamless transition of care from the hospital to home. We are eager to expand this relationship to hospice services. As with our recently announced Beacon Hospice acquisition opportunity, this transaction aligns nicely with our strategy of providing a continuum of at-home health care. We look forward to continuing to work together with HUMC to provide high quality health care to the people of Hudson and Bergen counties.a

About Amedisys, Inc.

Amedisys, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) is a leading health care company focused on bringing home the continuum of care. Amedisys delivers personalized health care services to patients and their families, in the comfort of patientsa™ homes, with approximately 10 million patient care and education encounters per year. Amedisys has two divisions, home health care and hospice. The Companya™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 one of 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 industrya™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 patienta™s home health plan of care. For more information about the Company, please visit: [ www.amedisys.com ].

This press release includes statements that may constitute aforward-lookinga statements, usually containing the words abelievea, aestimatea, aprojecta, aexpecta, aanticipatea or similar expressions.Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.Many of the factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are described in the Companya™s periodic reports and registrations statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and include, but are not limited to the following: changes in Medicare and other medical payment levels, our ability to open agencies, acquire additional agencies and integrate and operate these agencies effectively, changes in or our failure to comply with existing Federal and state laws or regulations or the inability to comply with new government regulations on a timely basis, competition in the home health industry, changes in the case mix of patients and payment methodologies, changes in estimates and judgments associated with critical accounting policies, our ability to maintain or establish new patient referral sources, our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, changes in payments and covered services due to the economic downturn and deficit spending by Federal and state governments, future cost containment initiatives undertaken by third-party payors, our access to financing due to the volatility and disruption of the capital and credit markets, our ability to meet debt service requirements and comply with covenants in debt agreements, business disruptions due to natural disasters or acts of terrorism, our ability to integrate and manage our information systems, changes in or developments with respect to any litigation or investigations relating to the Company, including the United States Senate Committee on Finance inquiry, the SEC investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Investigative Demand and various other matters, many of which are beyond our control. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release.

Our company website address is [ www.amedisys.com ]. We use our website as a channel of distribution for important company information. Important information, including press releases, analyst presentations and financial information regarding the Company is routinely posted on and accessible on the aInvestor Relationsa subpage of our website, which is accessible by clicking on the tab labeled aInvestorsa on our website home page. We will also use our website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the Company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (aSECa) disclosing the same information. In addition, we make available on the Investor Relations subpage of our website (under the link aSEC filingsa) free of charge our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, ownership reports on Forms 3, 4 and 5 and any amendments to those reports as soon as practicable after we electronically file such reports with the SEC. Further, copies of our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws, our Code of Ethical Business Conduct and the charters for the Audit, Compensation, Nominating and Corporate Governance, and Quality of Care Committees of our Board are also available on the Investor Relations subpage of our website (under the link aCorporate Governancea).