NCQA TO HONOR HEALTH CARE QUALITY
LEADERS AND ADVOCATES IN WASHINGTON

2008 Health Care Quality Awards Dinner to be held April 1

WASHINGTON— Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.), King County (Wash.) Executive Ron Sims and Arkansas Surgeon General Joseph Thompson have been named this year’s recipients of NCQA’s Health Quality Awards. The awards will be presented April 1 at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

“The willingness to take risks is the difference between leadership and stewardship,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “Our four award recipients are being recognized for having the courage to turn their bold vision into action. That’s what we need to bring real reform to our health care system.”

Each year, NCQA presents Health Quality Awards to individuals and organizations that highlight the need for—and drive—health care improvement.  Past recipients include former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), and actress and advocate Mary Tyler Moore.

NCQA’s 2008 Health Quality Award honorees are:

• Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) — A longtime advocate for quality health care and universal coverage, Senator Kennedy is the author of numerous landmark health care laws, including the HMO Act of 1973, the Community Health Center program, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). As Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Kennedy is leading the fight for mental health parity, research into traumatic brain injuries, and greater use of health information technology.
  
• Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) — California's 38th Governor, Schwarzenegger has proposed a comprehensive health reform plan that would guarantee all Californians can buy insurance, require everyone to be insured, increase Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals, promote balanced financing for health care, and reward healthy choices while containing costs through an emphasis on prevention and better care for people with chronic conditions.
  
• King County Executive Ron Sims — As Executive of the most populous county in Washington State, Sims has tackled health care reform with innovative approaches that are becoming national models. He helped found the Puget Sound Health Alliance, where the region's top corporations, health care providers and governments are working together to control costs while increasing the quality of health care. Sims also led early efforts to control county employee benefit costs with an emphasis on wellness, producing dramatic results in just one year.
  
• Joseph W. Thompson, M.D., MPH — As Surgeon General of the State of Arkansas and the director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI), Thompson is one of the nation’s leading advocates for prevention and healthy lifestyles. He was the lead architect of the landmark Tobacco Settlement Act of 2000 and has led a successful effort in Arkansas to combat childhood obesity whose centerpiece involved measuring the body mass index of every Arkansas schoolchild and sending the results home.

NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality.  NCQA is the nation’s leading developer of health care evaluation tools including health plan accreditation, physician recognition and organization certification. NCQA also is responsible for the evolution of HEDIS®, the most widely used set of health care performance measures.  NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health choices. For more information, visit www.ncqa.org.

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