Ellen Caruso Public Affairs
50 Eagle Ranch Road, P.O. Box 1450, Eagle, Colorado 81631
720-530-3034 – ellencarusopa@gmail.com
Ellen Caruso provides independent government affairs consultation with an emphasis on regulatory and reimbursement advocacy for Colorado health care providers. She is a registered lobbyist and her blog “Colorado Home Care: Things You Need to Know Today” is published in conjunction with The Crag Business Group, a leading home health consulting company based in Montrose, Colorado. Several times a year she coordinates Congressional lobby missions to our nation's Capitol and is a regular participant in meetings and discussions at the state departments of Health Care Policy & Financing, Public Health & Environment and Regulatory Agencies, as well as the Division of Workers Compensation.
Ellen is a graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism and has worked in government affairs,
association management, public relations and publishing for her entire career. She founded Caruso Group
International, a full service association management / government affairs / meeting planning firm
headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, which she sold in 2010 to spend full time in government affairs work.
As executive director and director of government affairs for the Colorado Chapter of the American Physical
Therapy Association and the Home Care Association of Colorado, she shepherded numerous major health
care bills through the entire legislative process, from the initial drafting process to all lengthy and detailed
regulatory hearings. These bills included licensure of physical therapists, home care agencies and
naturopathic doctors; confirmation of wound debridement, Grade V joint mobilization and dry needling in
the PT scope of practice and increased reimbursement rates for home care and therapy.
She works at serving her clients well. She knows how to help her clients reach their legislative / regulatory
goals without "burnout" and helps them do the things they find difficult to do. She knows whom the experts
in the industry or profession are -- the health care companies themselves -- and she makes sure their
expertise is put to good use. And she knows the state and federal legislators as well as the state regulatory
officials and how to open the doors to better public policy.
Ellen began her career in Helena, Montana, where she was executive director for a number of trade and professional societies in her and her husband Fred’s firm, Association Management Services. Her association accounts included the Montana Bar Association, the Montana Association of Life Underwriters, the Montana Water Development Association and the Montana Legal Services Association. During that time, she represented several of these organizations as a registered lobbyist before the Montana Legislature.
Upon moving to Washington, D.C., she was appointed the first Public Relations Director of Northern Virginia Community College's new Loudoun Campus. After returning west, Caruso was named Director of the University of Colorado at Denver Alumni Association. In this five-year position, she organized UCD's first legislative relations program and served as legislative liaison for UCD. She then opened her association management business in Centennial, which led to her current endeavors.
