WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama gave remarks Wednesday at the kick-off meeting for the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, a new initiative that aims to bring public and private-sector stakeholders together to build on the Affordable Care Act’s efforts to transition the U.S. health care system to models that provide the best care for patients and pays providers based on the quality, rather than the quantity, of care.

More than 2,800 payers, providers, employers, patients, states, consumer groups, consumers and other partners have registered to participate in the network. The president described the initiative as “the start of a new phase” under the Affordable Care Act in which health care professionals and other stakeholders “come together in one new network with one big goal, and that is to continue to improve the cost and quality of health care in America.”

Joining Obama for the launch event at the White House were Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell and, from the chain drug industry, NACDS president and CEO Steve Anderson and NACDS chairman John Standley, chairman and CEO of Rite Aid. The drug chain, along with Walgreens and Walmart, are among the network’s participants.

Alternative payment models seen as fostering value-based care include accountable care organizations (ACOs), bundled payments and advanced primary care medical homes.

“It is in our common interest to build a health care system that delivers better care, spends our health care dollars more wisely, and results in healthier people,” Burwell said at the event.