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Amedisys Participates in DecisionHealtha?s Opportunities for Accountable Care Organizations Webinar

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^{Published in Health and Fitness on Wednesday, June 1st 2011 at 21:00 GMT by Market Wire}  

BATON ROUGE, La.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--On Wednesday, June 8 from 1:00 pm a" 2:00 pm EST, Amedisys Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Fleming will present a webinar regarding the recently proposed Accountable Care Organization (ACO) rules from CMS that encourage home health agencies, hospitals and physicians to work together to reduce hospitalizations and increase Medicare savings. Amedisys, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) is one of America's leading home care and hospice companies.

"ACO Prep: How Providers Can Partner for Rewards"

The webinar, titled aACO Prep: How Providers Can Partner for Rewardsa is part of DecisionHealtha™s ACO Opportunities: Complete Two-Part Series and will cover how to ease the patienta™s transfer to the home, improve communication among different provider settings, reduce readmission rates by nearly 10 percent, increase referrals, standardize patient education materials, boost patient/caregiver satisfaction, and improve medication management.

Dr. Fleming will be joined by Brenda Czado, director of home care for Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice located in Lewiston, Maine to explain how providers from home health agencies, hospitals and physicians have jumped ahead of the curve to start forming such partnerships that will position their agency for growth during this inevitable movement toward patient-centered care.

aThe point of ACOs is to eliminate fragmented care and the duplication of services and risk of errors that comes with it,a said Dr. Fleming. aAs we continue to focus on patient-centered care, it is imperative that a sustainable health care system be created.a

Those interested in attending the webinar can register online [ http://www.decisionhealth.com/conferences/a2123/home.html ] or call toll-free 1-855-CALL-DH1 (1-855-225-5341).

About Amedisys:

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 ].

About DecisionHealth^®:

For more than 30 years, DecisionHealth has served as the industrya™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 thata™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.