BATON ROUGE, Lousiana—Amedisys, Inc., a provider of quality home health, hospice and high-acuity care services, announced its Board of Directors named Richard Ashworth as president, chief executive officer and member of the Board of Directors. Ashworth will assume the role on April 10, 2023, from Chief Executive Officer Paul Kusserow. Kusserow will remain chairman of the Board for Amedisys and will provide support through the transition, with a continued strategic focus on Contessa Health.
“We are fortunate to find such a capable leader to continue to drive excellence and innovation in providing care in the home,” said Kusserow. “Richard is the right leader to shepherd Amedisys into the future as he is uniquely positioned to lead the company with his proven track record of developing and executing on strategies specific to labor and staffing, payer relationships, operational efficiencies and new business and product development. These are all capabilities we are excited to have, and he has the full support of the Board.”
Ashworth is a pharmacist and a highly respected and accomplished healthcare executive with expertise in driving transformational growth, large-scale operations management, shaping public health policy and creating shareholder value. Ashworth was most recently president and CEO for Tivity Health, a provider of healthy life-changing solutions for Medicare Advantage plans. Under his leadership, Ashworth delivered significant shareholder performance, achieving a return of more than 300%, drove industry-leading employee engagement and built strong relationships with Medicare Advantage payers.
Prior to that, Ashworth served as president of Walgreen Co., and was responsible for creating and delivering the strategic direction of the retail and pharmacy business; leading 275,000 employees to deliver customer care and achieving some of the company’s highest employee engagement scores; transforming the operating model to empower employees to better focus on the patient- and customer-experience; driving digital acceleration; and overseeing the financial performance of 9,500 locations nationwide with more than $115 billion in revenue.
“I am passionate about patient care and giving Amedisys’ caregivers the tools and support needed to focus on what they do best,” said Ashworth. “I am honored to join an organization whose mission is to allow patients to remain in the home while getting the care that they need, and look forward to working closely with the Board, leadership team and Amedisys’ 20,000-plus caregivers as we collectively build on the industry-leading quality care the company is known for and enter into Amedisys’ next chapter of innovation and growth.”
