February 1, 2007

Dear Health Care Reform Advocate:

When Senator Joseph Vitale asked the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (NJHCQI) to assist him in convening stakeholders and other interested parties to begin discussing how we can provide health care coverage and access to the state's more than 1.3 million uninsured and underinsured citizens, we did not hesitate and enthusiastically agreed to help in this worthy effort.

Since that time in the summer of 2006, many have asked me why the Quality Institute would be so involved in such a process. The answer is simple: NOTHING will more quickly and more assuredly improve the quality of health care in our state than to provide coverage and access to those who are now doing without.

As we at the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute approach our 10th anniversary, we work everyday to stay true to our core principles and guiding mission. Founded in 1997, the NJHCQI is a non-profit foundation. Its purpose is to "undertake projects that will ensure that quality, accountability and cost containment are all closely linked to the delivery of health care services in New Jersey." NJHCQI fosters collaboration amongst all stakeholders in the State's health care delivery system so that purchasers and health care consumers more fully realize the benefits of the linkage between quality, accountability and cost containment.

Nothing could be truer to our mission than both the process and goals of the transformational health care reform effort launched by the Chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Services Committee, Senator Vitale. Under the Chairman's guidance and leadership, we assembled a team of experts who want to make a difference in the way health care is delivered and provided in our state. And while we have already spent literally hundreds of hours discussing, researching and analyzing proposals and ideas, we are now closer to the beginning of our journey than we are to the end.

Now we need your help. On these pages you will find the core components and principles of a plan to revolutionize health care in our state. Please take a few minutes to review our ideas, but MOST importantly, please let us know what you think. We need your thoughts and ideas to make this work. Without you, we cannot be successful.

If you would like to learn more about the Quality Institute, please go to www.njhcqi.org. To learn how your organization or company can join us, please call 800-414-4931.

Sincerely,

David Knowlton
President & CEO
New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute