ARLINGTON, Texas, June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Nursefinders Inc., one of the nation's largest providers of home health care and health care personnel services, was selected by XLHealth, a disease management firm, as the preferred outsourced provider of in-home patient assessments for the CMS Disease State Management Demonstration project.
This program is the nation's largest demonstration project aimed at improving care for chronically ill Medicare patients through disease management, and XLHealth reports the program is expected to dramatically improve health care outcomes for individuals with complex chronic disease conditions.
Beginning immediately and extending throughout the three-year pilot, Nursefinders' Home Care Division is conducting comprehensive health assessments for 10,000 patients across Texas, including the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, Austin, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio and Tyler. Nursefinders will also assist XLHealth throughout the demonstration as XLHealth coordinates care with the patient's physician for appropriate interventions aimed at improved patient health outcomes, increased patient satisfaction and decreased health care expenditures. When requested by a patient or physician, Nursefinders will also provide patients in the study with more traditional home health services that will be paid for by Medicare.
The "study" patients must be Medicare recipients with either a diagnosis of complex diabetes, advanced congestive heart failure or cardiovascular disease.
Based on XLHealth's past experience, the company projects that over a three-year period, in aggregate, the approximately 10,000 patients enrolled in the XLHealth program will see a 50 percent reduction in amputations and other serious diabetes foot complications and a 50 percent decrease in repeat heart failure events.
"Through this high-touch disease management program, we will be able to see improvements in quality of life, reduction of hospitalizations and reduction in Medicare costs," said Pamela Wendt, RN, Nursefinders' chief nursing officer. "This program is a multidisciplinary approach to medical intervention, which includes pharmacy benefits, durable medical equipment, home health care services, and telemonitoring services.
"Nursefinders' participation in this program will put our company and clinicians at the leading edge of disease state management and outcomes based care," she added.
According to Wendt, for many patients experiencing complications from both diabetes and congestive heart failure, it is important to provide proper care and to assist them to properly manage their disease. This demonstration project will provide data to help health care professionals better understand and monitor how this type of intervention can improve health care for individuals with chronic diseases.
"Nursefinders was selected for this project, in part, based on its 30-year history of providing quality caregivers and its experience in managing complex patient therapies," said Paul Serini, XLHealth executive vice president.
"This will afford us the opportunity to expand our coverage in Texas with the addition of new locations in Austin, Corpus Christi and Tyler," said Bob Livonius, Nursefinders' chief executive officer.
Patients interested in participating in this study may call 1-888-284-0001.
XLHealth was selected by the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to conduct this demonstration project.
About XLHealth
XLHealth (http://www.xlhealth.com/ ) is a leader in providing disease support and management programs to assist physicians by working with patients with severe chronic diseases and family members who care for them. The firm has pioneered a "high touch" approach that incorporates face-to-face meetings with patients along with innovative program and data management to gather information and establish a trusted support relationship with each patient. XLHealth has national and local health plan and employer clients in the State of Texas and in Puerto Rico. The company is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information about the company, visit http://www.xlhealth.com/ .
About Nursefinders:
Nursefinders Inc., headquartered in Arlington, Texas, is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2004. The company provides comprehensive home health care services in various states nationwide and health care staffing services to more than 4,200 hospitals, nursing homes and clinics across the country. Nursefinders has a system-wide network of approximately 120 offices in the United States providing RNs, LPN/LVNs, home health aides, therapists, nursing assistants, companions and other health care and medical clerical professionals for staffing needs. Nursefinders prides itself on hiring only the most highly qualified professionals.
Since 1974, Nursefinders has placed more than 3.5 million nurses in more than 10 million shifts and 32 million home care visits. The total system-wide sales from 1974 to 2003 reached nearly $3.5 billion. For more information about the company, visit http://www.nursefinders.com/ .
Nursefinders Inc.CONTACT: Krista Brown of Maverick Adv. & PR, +1-817-740-0777, ext. 25,for Nursefinders Inc.
