PCORI Funding Extended

The Affordable Care Act created, and required health insurers and plans to fund, a Patient Centered  Outcomes Research Institute.The FEHBlog thinks that the PCORI duplicates the work of existing government agencies, such as AHRQ.  He also cannot understand why the cost of PCORI was not spread over other segments of the health care industry. The ACA provided PCORI with health plan / insurer funding through this year. Some thought that this meant the annual PCORI funding obligation would end. Those observers must not work inside the Beltway like the FEHBlog does. So the FEHBlog was not surprised to learn today that the FY 2020 final spending bills extended the current funding system for PCORI over the next ten years. As the same bills repealed the ACA's health insurer and Cadillac taxes, this is a small price of health plans and insurers to pay. Hopefully, the fruits of the PCORI will be on display in the next decade.