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Health Leaders Discuss Health Care Reform, Importance of Achieving Quality in Medicine During 2007 Georgia Health Care Symposium

ATLANTA, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- State and national leaders focused on health care reform and discussed options to ensure the effective delivery of health care today at the 2007 Georgia Health Care Symposium, held at the Capitol Education Center in Atlanta.

Business and policy leaders attended the event, which was hosted by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation and brought together Georgia Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Peter Pitts, former associate commissioner for external relations for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Dr. M.J. Collier Jr., vice president of the Georgia State Medical Association

Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, who is chairman of the Foundation's Board of Governors, focused on the challenges surrounding health care delivery in the state.

"Today's dialogue reinforces the need to increase our commitment to providing quality health care," said Dr. Fitzgerald, a practicing physician in Carroll County.

"Focusing on maximizing outcomes and value for patients, safeguarding the doctor-patient relationship and increasing access to quality care are just a few simple steps we can take to improve the delivery of health care and practice of medicine."

Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle reiterated his commitment to creating "a consumer-based health care market where individuals and businesses can get the information they need to make educated choices about their health insurance.'

"By giving people more options and by allowing them to purchase insurance directly from companies and agents, we can lift the veil on the complex health insurance market, creating a system that is affordable and accessible to every Georgian," said the Lt. Gov. Cagle, the first Republican elected to Geor
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