The ACA created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help patients, clinicians, payers and the public make informed health decisions by advancing comparative effectiveness research. The Institute’s research is funded, in part, through fees paid by health insurance issuers and self-insured health plan sponsors. These fees are widely known as PCORI fees, although they may also be called PCOR fees or comparative effectiveness research (CER) fees.
The PCORI fees apply for plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2012, but do not apply for plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2019. For calendar year plans, the fees will be effective for the 2012 through 2018 plan years. Issuers and plan sponsors will be required to pay the PCORI fees annually on IRS Form 720 by July 31 of each year. It will generally cover plan years that end during the preceding calendar year. Thus, the deadline for filing Form 720 was July 31, 2015, for plan years ending in 2014. For plan years ending in 2015, PCORI fees will be due by Aug. 1, 2016, since July 31, 2016, is a Sunday.
Please see the following IRS resources for more information on the ACA’s PCORI fees:
PCORI Fee Overview Page
PCORI Fee: Questions and Answers
IRS Form 720 and instructions
PCORI Fee Due Dates and Applicable Rates