"With the Citizen's Health Initiative, we are bringing together people from across New Hampshire to focus on improving health care quality, controlling health care costs, and ensuring that more of our citizens have access to quality health care," Gov. Lynch said. "New Hampshire's selection to participate in this national policy academy is a recognition of the creativity and promise of the work of the Citizen's Health Initiative and of New Hampshire's commitment to address our most pressing health care challenges."

"The technical assistance that comes with New Hampshire's selection to participate in this academy will be a valuable asset to our efforts to move forward in the Initiative's goals on health care quality," Gov. Lynch said.

The Citizen's Health Initiative is comprised of three teams focused on quality of care, health promotion and disease prevention, and health care financing.

Among the initial efforts of the initiative are developing common standards for "pay for performance," for insurers in the state to improve the health care system's ocus on preventative measures; working to develop an E-prescribing system for New Hampshire; to develop standards for secure electronic medical records; and a public information campaign on promoting health lifestyles.

The National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices, with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), is sponsoring the Academy. At the academy meeting - to be held June 14-16, 2006, in Berkeley, California - teams of state policymakers from the public and private sector will meet with national experts to develop customized strategies for targeted health care quality improvement initiatives. After the Academy, the NGA will provide continued technical assistance to help with implementation.