America has a skilled health care workforce and great hospitals. Every day, our health professionals are committed to improving care processes and systems for patients. So how will your doctor, your hospital, and Medicare align to fight disease and provide you with the best possible care? Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, created under the Affordable Care Act. This program provides hospitals with incentive payments based on their performance on a number of health care quality measures.

To help spread the word about this new benefit, I teamed up with Education Secretary Arne Duncan to help educate you, the graduating class of 2011, about your new rights and benefits under the Affordable Care Act. To get the word out, we sent letters to college and university presidents as well as student body presidents outlining how the Affordable Care Act can help you obtain health coverage. The letter also includes new tools available to help share this information with all students and parents.

After a week of negotiations continued through Friday night and into Saturday morning, an open-ended working-group meeting of Member States successfully agreed upon a framework to ensure that in a pandemic, influenza virus samples will be shared with partners who need the information to take steps to protect public health.

Approximately nine million Americans are eligible for both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. These individuals, also known as “dual eligibles,” are among our nation’s lowest-income and chronically ill citizens. Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced initiatives, funded by the Affordable Care Act, that will give States more resources and flexibility to adopt innovative new practices and provide better, more coordinated care for dual eligibles.

As Director of the Office on Disability, I am very excited to be able to report significant progress in the implementation of provisions that will expand opportunities for persons with disabilities to live in their communities. Within the department, we are taking the lead in coordinating the Community Living Initiative, which will allow more persons with disabilities who wish to live in their own homes to do so. A regulation released today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will make it considerably easier for states to provide home and community based services in the Medicaid program, allowing people with disabilities to stay in their homes and contribute to their communities.

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the launch of the Partnership for Patients: Better Care, Lower Costs, a new public-private partnership that will help improve the quality, safety and affordability of health care for all Americans. Today, hospitals, physicians, nurses, and consumer advocates along with CEOs from major employers, State officials, and others participated in an event to pledge their commitment to this new initiative. HHS announced that $1 billion in Affordable Care Act funding will go to help achieve two shared goals.