Gingrich Announces Release of 'Saving Lives & Saving Money'; Book Describes How to Create 21st Century System of Health, Healthcare

5/5/2003

From: Rick Tyler of Gingrich Communications, 540-338-1250

WASHINGTON, May 5 -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced today the release of his new book, "Saving Lives & Saving Money: Transforming Health and Healthcare" with co-authors Dana Pavey and Anne Woodbury. Dana Pavey is Gingrich's director of research at the American Enterprise Institute. Anne Woodbury is the vice president for health at the Gingrich Group.

Saving Lives & Saving Money identifies the principles of transformation necessary to create a 21st Century System of Health and Healthcare that will both save lives and save money. It presents success stories of actual healthcare companies, organizations, and projects to offer both proof that a better system of health and healthcare is possible and an opportunity for others to adopt the transforming examples.

"There is an enormous gap between the quality of healthcare you and your family should have and what you are most likely receiving from the current system," Gingrich said. "We have demonstrated that Americans could have a dramatically better system, which would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars every year."

Gingrich proposes a 21st Century System of Health and Healthcare where the individual is at the center of care, a better outcome at lower cost is the measure of success, and doctors and hospitals take full advantage of existing technologies. Gingrich argues that a 21st Century System of Health and Healthcare that saves lives and saves money is both a moral imperative and a practical need.

William Novelli, AARP executive director and CEO, wrote, "Newt's ideas are influencing how we at AARP are thinking about our national role in health promotion and disease prevention. Whatever your views and your state of health, you will find 'Saving Lives & Saving Money' bold, enlightening and provocative."

Written as a citizen's guide, Gingrich noted that "Saving Lives & Saving Money" is the result of applying the lessons he learned from two decades of work in defense transformation, his experience in public health policy as a member of Congress, years of research at the American Enterprise Institute where he is a senior fellow, and through consulting relationships with health related businesses at his firm, the Gingrich Group.

The release of "Saving Lives & Saving Money" coincides with the launch by the Gingrich Group of the Center for Health Transformation (http://www.healthtransformation.net). Its mission, according to the center's director Anne Woodbury, is to identify existing solutions that provide better outcomes at lower cost and to foster their implementation by sharing those solutions with the widest range of individuals, purchasers, providers, and government decision makers. Ultimately, this collaboration will accelerate the adoption of these practices and advance the public policies that are required to save lives and save money.

"Saving Lives & Saving Money," an Alexis de Tocqueville publication printed and distributed by BookSurge, is available for purchase at http://www.newt.org or http://www.healthtransformation.net.