Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Fees (PCORI Fees)

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Institute) to help patients, clinicians, payers and the public make informed health decisions by advancing comparative effectiveness research. The Institute’s research is to be funded, in part, by fees paid by health insurance issuers and sponsors of self-insured health plans. These fees are widely known as Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute fees (PCORI fees), although they may also be called PCOR fees or comparative effectiveness research (CER) fees.

On Dec. 5, 2012, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued final regulations on the PCORI fees. The final regulations address many important details regarding which health insurance issuers and plan sponsors are subject to the fees and how the fees are calculated and paid. For example, the regulations address how the PCORI fees apply to health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) and health flexible spending accounts (FSAs).

The final regulations apply to plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2012 and before Oct. 1, 2019.

On May 28, 2013, the IRS released an updated Form 720 that includes a section where issuers and plan sponsors will report and pay the PCORI fee. The IRS also released updated instructions along with the revised form.

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