OCS HomeCare and DecisionHealth Announce the 2010 HomeCare Elite Top 25 Percent of U. S. Home Health Agencies

The HomeCare Elite highlights the top 25 percent of home health care agencies and has become the industry standard for measuring organizational performance. The 2010 HomeCare Elite also recognizes the top 100 and top 500 providers nationwide. OCS HomeCare publishes a complete HomeCare Elite list that is available for download.

Seattle, WA (Vocus) October 5, 2010

OCS HomeCare and DecisionHealth® are pleased to announce the 2010 HomeCare Elite™, a compilation of the top performing home health agencies in the United States. Now in its fifth year, the market-leading 2010 HomeCare Elite list is currently available to download from the OCS HomeCare website.

The HomeCare Elite annual review identifies the top 25 percent of agencies nationwide and further highlights the top 100 and top 500 agencies overall. Winners are ranked by an analysis of measures in quality of care, quality improvement, and financial performance.

“For five years, the HomeCare Elite has established the industry standard for identifying home health care agencies that perform at the highest level,” says Amanda Twiss, CEO of OCS HomeCare. “We congratulate the 2010 HomeCare Elite for their continued success and commitment to high quality of care and strong financial performance.”

“The 2010 HomeCare Elite have been able to provide quality care to patients while achieving positive financial outcomes, which has not been easy during the recent recession,” says Corinne Kuypers-Denlinger, DecisionHealth vice president of home health. “The top 25 percent of agencies deserve this special recognition.”

Some interesting data points round out the fifth anniversary of the HomeCare Elite. There were 9,375 Medicare-certified home health agencies in the U. S. with sufficient data to be considered for the 2010 HomeCare Elite. This represents an increase of 483 from 8,892 home care agencies that were eligible last year. Of the 2,347 agencies that were identified as the top 25 percent for the 2010 HomeCare Elite list, 1,503 are repeat agencies from 2009. Further, 222 agencies in this year’s top 500 appeared in 2009. Plus, only 31 of this year’s top 100 returned from last year’s top 100.

It is worth noting that 452 home care agencies have appeared on the HomeCare Elite list all five years. In addition, 11 agencies have appeared in the top 500 all five years. And finally, only one home health agency in the entire country has been recognized as a top 100 agency for all five years—Parkview Homecare of Pueblo, Colorado.

“We are speechless and very excited,” says Kelea Nardini, director of Parkview Homecare. “This would not be possible without the commitment from senior management and our caregivers to providing quality care to our patients. We are constantly striving toward excellence in quality of care. We have been partners with OCS for five years, using the data to manage and improve our overall outcomes and quality. The data and information from OCS has really helped our overall success.”

OCS HomeCare uses publicly available data from Home Health Compare and the CMS Cost Reports to create the HomeCare Elite list of agencies. Three domains of performance were cumulatively evaluated—quality of care, quality improvement, and financial performance. The quality of care measure indexes agency performance in each of the 12 publicly reported Home Health Compare measures released in April 2010. The quality improvement index is based on changes in the 12 outcomes between data released in September 2009 and April 2010. The financial performance measure represents agency indexed profit margin from the 2009 CMS Cost Reports (or adjusted 2008 results when 2009 data was not available).

Agency performance in each of the three domains was compared against the performance of other organizations in their state and in the country. The three domains were combined into one overall score, using a weighting methodology that gives the greatest importance to quality of care. The top 25 percent of agencies in each region, both facility-based and free standing were identified and added to the national list.

While the 2010 HomeCare Elite list is free to download, OCS HomeCare has a special limited-time offer for U. S. agencies to purchase a HomeCare Elite Analysis Report for only $99. The HomeCare Elite Analysis Report highlights an agency’s scores within the three HomeCare Elite performance measures: quality of care, quality improvement, and financial performance. Plus, agencies can compare their scores to the 2010 HomeCare Elite and the overall performance averages in their home state.

For agencies that want tips on how to achieve quality clinical and financial outcomes as the HomeCare Elite agencies do, DecisionHealth offers the HomeCare Elite Essentials Package. It includes the HomeCare Elite Handbook and two audio CDs of case studies from HomeCare Elite agencies.

About OCS HomeCare

OCS HomeCare empowers home health and hospice organizations with results-driven data intelligence, plus the largest and most accurate homecare database in the industry. Homecare providers, payers, associations, government agencies, vendors, and consultants all turn to OCS to elevate decision-making, raise the bar on results, and bring home positive outcomes. For more information about OCS HomeCare, please visit 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 Part B News, Home Health Line, Medicare Compliance Alert, Inside the Joint Commission and Specialty Coders Pink Sheets. 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 DecisionHealth. com or call 877.602.3835.

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