Our Funding

How We're Funded

PCORI is funded through the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (PCOR Trust Fund), which was authorized to be established through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Under the 2019 amendment to the authorizing law, the PCOR Trust Fund receives income from two funding streams: statutory appropriations from the general fund of the Treasury and a fee assessed on private insurance and self-insured health plans (the PCOR Trust Fund Fee). Prior to the 2019 amendment, the PCOR Trust Fund also received income from transfers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid trust funds.

PCORI receives 80 percent of the monies collected by the PCOR Trust Fund to support its research and programmatic funding and operations. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) receives the other 20 percent of Trust Fund monies to support dissemination and research capacity-building efforts (the majority of HHS’s share goes to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality).

For government fiscal years (FYs) 2020 through 2029, the PCOR Trust Fund will receive an amount ranging from $275,500,000 in FY 2020 to $399 million in FY 2029.

The Trust Fund began to receive monies from the PCOR Trust Fund Fee in FY 2013. The fee is collected by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) through Form 720.  PCORI does not establish, collect or otherwise administer the fee. All questions about this fee should be referred to the IRS.

Additional details on how PCORI is funded are provided in the authorizing law in Sec. 1183 and Sec. 9511, beginning on page 17 of this PDF.

You may also wish to visit the section of the IRS website that contains guidance and regulations related to the PCOR Trust Fund Fee.

Additional details about PCORI’s revenues and disbursements can be found in our annual financial reports and audits, which are available here.

Posted: June 2012; Updated: June 2020