BATON ROUGE, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED), a national leader in health care at home companies applauded the Global Burden of Disease Study published by British journal, The Lancet.

The study features results from a new 10-year look at the Global Burden of Disease, and not at all surprisingly the biggest contributor to the global health burden is the specter of chronic diseases. With life expectancy climbing in the U.S., so too are the number of years people will live with diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health disorders.

“This remarkable shift calls for a paradigm change for healthcare delivery in the U.S.,” says Michael Fleming, MD, FAAFP and Chief Medical Officer for Amedisys. “In our view, only through an approach that cares for patients on a sustained basis -- around the clock and year-round -- can our healthcare delivery system properly manage those chronic diseases. We must move from a short-term episodic care mindset to one that can better manage chronic disease and prevent costly exacerbations – a longitudinal care model.”

To read the full blog post by Dr. Fleming on this paradigm shift in health care, please visit: http://www.amedisys.com/Our-Company/Health-Care-At-Home-Blog/December-2012/Longitudinal-Chronic-Care-Needed-to-Reduce-Burden

To read the entire Global Burden of Disease Study, please click here.

About Amedisys:

Amedisys, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) is a leading health care at home company delivering personalized home health and hospice care to more than 360,000 patients each year. Amedisys is focused on delivering the care that is best for our patients, whether that is home-based recovery and rehabilitation after an operation or injury, care focused on empowering them to manage a chronic disease, palliative care for those with a terminal illness, or hospice care at the end of life. 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 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 industry's first-ever nationwide Care Transitions program, 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: http://www.amedisys.com.

Amedisys Inc.
Jacqueline Chen Valencia, 225-299-3688
Marketing & Communications
[email protected]

Source: Amedisys, Inc.