Amedisys Chairman & CEO Paul Kusserow, Credit: Amedisys

Amedisys Chairman and CEO Paul Kusserow admitted Tuesday that “predictability in earnings” is the reason the home care and hospice giant ousted former CEO Chris Gerard last month and reinstalled Kusserow to lead the company again.

“We need to stand by what we say and deliver on our numbers,” Kusserow told investors during the Bank of America Home Care Conference.

In an effort to increase profitability at Baton Rouge, LA-based Amedisys, Kusserow and his executive team laid out a strategy for 2023 that focuses on recruiting and retaining clinical staff, optimizing its payer mix, consolidating administrative functions at the company’s 540 care centers and proving the value of hospital-at-home unit Contessa. 

He explained that beefing up clinical staff is paramount if Amedisys hopes to compete for contracts with large payers, including  Medicare Advantage plans. Kusserow added the ability to deliver better service to patients against other providers will give Amedisys more leverage on pricing. 

“If it is not a good contract and we are getting delayed in payments, we are going to make some tough calls on whether this is something that we should take,” Kusserow told investors. “At the same time we are going to have to balance that with making sure that we respond well to the providers who are sending business our way and not cherry picking.” 

Although Kusserow said the company remains bullish on hospital-at-home unit Contessa, which it acquired last year, he conceded the unit has been struggling with operating losses since the acquisition. 

“There’s a lot of depth in what we can do,” he said. “The question now is digging in deep and making sure everyone in the industry knows this is a very good model.”

In a move that surprised the home care industry, Kusserow stepped back into the CEO role in mid-November following the abrupt firing of Gerard, who had taken over the reins of Amedisys only seven months earlier. The company has struggled financially for several quarters and recently reported a more than 40% decline in third quarter earnings. Kusserow was Amedisys’ CEO for eight years and remained chairman, following his retirement in the second quarter of this year.

Amedisys provides home care, home healthcare, hospice and hospital-at-home services in 36 states and the District of Columbia to approximately 445,000 patients annually.