A recent legal update from McGuireWoods explains the PCORI is governed by a 21-member board of governors, who are appointed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Under the PPACA, the PCORI is tasked with assisting all people involved in the healthcare process — from patients to clinicians — in making informed health decisions. The PCORI’s board will do this by looking at the quality and relevance of evidence for how certain health conditions and procedures are diagnosed, treated, managed and prevented.
Last month, the PCORI’s board authorized $30 million in funding over two years for 50 pilot projects, which will “address methods for engaging patients in various aspects of the research and dissemination process.”
The PCORI is funded partially through a trust fund. The Internal Revenue Service will impose fees on health insurers and self-insured health plan sponsors, with the first payment due July 31, 2013, and will end with plan years on Sept. 30, 2019.
Here’s the trail of how fees will be assessed: For each policy year ending after Sept. 30, 2012, health insurers will be charged a fee of $2 (or $1 in the case of policy years ending before Oct. 1, 2013) multiplied by the average number of lives covered under the policy.
According to the McGuireWoods brief, however, if the Supreme Court rules the individual mandate is unconstitutional and cannot be severed from the rest of the PPACA, the PCORI would be invalidated, and consequently, the fees would not be assessed.
More Articles on the PCORI:
PCORI to Amend Draft Research Agenda After Public Comments
PCORI Urges Patient-Centeredness for Clinical Research and Methodology
PCORI Releases Draft of National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda
