News Releases

Valley-based Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG) announced today that it has joined the national Home Health Quality Initiative to further improve the quality of care received by the 22,000 elderly and disabled Arizonans who receive care from more than 60 Medicare certified home health agencies in the state. Nationwide, each year 3.5 million people are served by nearly 7,000 home health agencies. There are more than 690,000 Medicare-eligible consumers in Arizona.

The initiative gives consumers the ability to now gain easy access to important, objective healthcare information to help make more informed decisions when choosing a home health care provider for themselves or a loved one. The data is part of a new Home Health Quality Initiative (HHQI) of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, designed to improve quality of care provided by home health agencies through public reporting and community-based efforts.

Consumers can obtain the comparative data by going on-line at www.medicare.gov and clicking on Home Health Compare. They can also request information by calling toll-free at 1-800-MEDICARE.

"As a partner in this quality initiative, we recognize that the opportunity to work collaboratively with HSAG will expand our knowledge and resources to help us achieve greater and more immediate improvement in our services," said Karen Jeselun, Administrator of Arizona Home Care. "And as a leading provider of home health care in Arizona, we are committed to providing the best possible quality of care for our consumers."

The HHQI releases new quality data to give seniors and their families comparative information about home health agencies? quality of care, and through its participation, Health Services Advisory Group is further illustrating its commitment to offering the highest quality of home health care in Arizona.

"A key step towards improving quality is getting consumers the information they need to make informed health care choices," said Jeselun. "The Home Health Compare Web site will be a great addition to the many resources consumers have to make an informed decision about their care."

Consumers are encouraged to use the Web site as one tool in an overall strategy to learn about home health care. Additional information available on-line or by phone includes brochures and fact sheets on how to choose a home health agency, information on patient rights, and a checklist that will help consumers begin the dialogue with a home health agency.

For more information about the Home Health Quality Initiative or about other quality improvement projects now underway at HSAG, visit http://hhqi.hsag.com, or call Debbie Nixon, Vice President, Corporate Development & Communications at (602) 665-6108.

About Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG)
For 25 years HSAG has provided innovative leadership on health care quality improvement projects for Federal, state and private sector clients. Founded by a group of medical professionals in 1979, HSAG is one of most experienced quality improvement organizations in the nation. HSAG is recognized as an agent of change in the industry because of the company's successful collaboration with providers across the continuum of care.