Press Release

Boston, MA - July 21 , 2008 - Jack Steele, Chairman and CEO of ActiveStrategy, Inc., will lead the track on “Building a Business Case for Hospital Quality Improvement” at the 6th Annual World Congress Leadership Summit on Healthcare Quality, a three-day event convening the nation’s leading experts to address the next stage of achieving and rewarding healthcare quality through topics including pay-for-performance, value-based purchasing, the medical home, public reporting and data exchange.

WHAT: The 6th Annual World Congress Leadership Summit on
Healthcare Quality
WHEN: August 4-5, 2008 / *Pre-conference boot camp, August 3
WHERE: Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel, Boston, MA
PROGRAM AGENDA: www.worldcongress.com/HCQ

Joining Steele as a featured speaker on the track, Kathleen Forbes, MD, EVP, Clinical Affairs and Business Development, University of North Texas Health Science Center, will present on “Using Balanced Scorecards to Create a Strategy-focused, Performance-enhanced and Quality-Driven Culture.”

The former SVP of Medical Affairs and Chief Quality Officer at TriHealth, Inc. will focus on:

• Developing and linking a balanced scorecard framework to a health system's management practice and then automating and deploying it in software
• Enhancing a hospital's ability to track and monitor trend results and related initiatives in operational and functional areas, such as quality and finance
• Improving data transparency and clarity for improved performance of key measures and better organizational readiness for public reporting and regulatory audits
• The results to date: improved strategic focus and ability to solve high-level problems by identifying and resolving lower-level causes

Focusing on bridging the gap between payment and quality, the Leadership Summit on Health Care Quality, formerly called the Leadership Summit on Healthcare Quality and Pay-For-Performance, will convene 400 industry leaders to advance quality improvement initiatives and collaborate on solutions to fix our Nation’s broken healthcare system. Attendees include hospital/health system/group practice providers; health plan/payer executives; government officials; society and coalition leaders; and employer/purchaser decision-makers who are redefining healthcare quality and driving innovations across the industry.

The Summit open with an exclusive August 3rd boot camp session on Purchaser and Provider Relationships: Discovering the Power of Performance-Based Contracting, facilitated by William J. DeMarco, President & CEO of DeMarco and Associates, Inc.

Key topics include:

• Pushing Beyond the Limits of Pay-for-Performance to Address Real Payment Reform
• Evaluating the Dimensions of High Quality Care and the Medical Home’s Potential Impact
• Addressing Cost and Quality with Value-Based Purchasing
• An Update from CMS – Assessing the Past and Forecasting the Future
• Public Disclosure Strategies – A Frontline Approach to Reporting on Cost and Quality
• Responding to the Demands for Consumer Engagement — Putting Quality First

Other key speakers include:

• Trent T. Haywood, MD, JD, SVP, Clinical Performance & CMO, VHA Inc.; former Deputy Chief Clinical Officer, Office of Clinical Standards and Quality, CMS
• Dolores L. Mitchell, Executive Director, Group Insurance Commission
• Jerod M. Loeb, PhD, EVP, Quality Measurement and Research, The Joint Commission
• U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
• Francois de Brantes, MBA, CEO, Bridges To Excellence; National Coordinator, PROMETHEUS Payment®
• John A. Fallon, MD, MBA, SVP & Chief Physician Executive, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

About World Congress Leadership Summits

The World Health Care Congress Leadership Summit Series addresses the most cutting edge issues for healthcare executives across a wide range of industry sectors. Designed to expand on topics discussed at invitation- only summits during the flagship World Health Care Congress, this series offers new perspectives on established methodologies, and details solutions to foster innovation and change.

Media/Analyst Contact:
Alison Minaglia
TechnologyPR for ActiveStrategy
aminaglia@technologypr.com
203-972-3170

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