Page 1 GAO-25-107986 Review of the PCORI FY 2024 Financial Audit
N.W.
March 26, 2025
Congressional Committees
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute: Review of the FY 2024 Financial
Statement Audit
This report presents the results of our review of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research
Institute’s (PCORI) fiscal year 2024 financial statement audit.
1
The Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (PPACA) authorized the establishment of PCORI in 2010
2
as a federally
funded,
3
nonprofit corporation that is neither an agency nor an establishment of the U.S.
government.
4
According to PPACA, PCORI’s purpose is to assist patients, clinicians,
purchasers, and policymakers in making informed health care decisions by advancing the
quality and relevance of evidence concerning the manner in which diseases, disorders, and
other health conditions can effectively and appropriately be prevented, diagnosed, treated,
monitored, and managed through research and evidence synthesis.
5
PPACA requires PCORI to obtain an annual financial statement audit from a private entity with
expertise in conducting financial audits and includes a provision for the Comptroller General of
the United States to review the audit and report the results to the Congress annually.
6
An independent public accounting firm (IPA) issued an unmodified opinion on PCORI’s fiscal
years 2024 and 2023 financial statements. Specifically, the IPA found that PCORI’s financial
statements were presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance with U.S. generally
1
We reported on the results of our review of PCORI’s fiscal year 2023 financial statement audit in GAO,
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute: Review of the Audit of the FY 2023 Financial Statements,
GAO-24-107260 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 28, 2024).
2
PPACA, Pub. L. No. 111-148, § 6301(a), 124 Stat. 119, 728 (2010), classified at 42 U.S.C. § 1320e(b)(1).
3
The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, appropriated funds and certain fee revenues to PCORI through
fiscal year 2029. Pub. L. No. 116-94, div. N, tit. I, § 104(a), 133 Stat. 2534, 3097-98 (2019), classified at 26 U.S.C.
§ 9511(b)(1)(F), (4).
4
PPACA authorized PCORI to be established as a nonprofit corporation subject to the District of Columbia Non-Profit
Corporation Act and organized within the meaning of sections 501(c)(1) and 501(l) of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986, as amended. PPACA, classified at 42 U.S.C. § 1320e(b)(2); 26 U.S.C. §§ 501(c)(1), (l).
5
PPACA, classified at 42 U.S.C. § 1320e(c).
6
PPACA, classified at 42 U.S.C. § 1320e(g)(1), (2)(A)(i), (2)(B). PPACA also includes a provision for GAO to review
(1) certain PCORI activities, such as processes established, training activities, barriers encountered, and overall
effectiveness, every 5 years and (2) the adequacy and use of funding, no later than March 23, 2018. 42 U.S.C.
§ 1320e(g)(2)(A)(ii)-(vi). GAO completed reviews and issued reports in 2015, 2018, and 2020. GAO, Comparative
Effectiveness Research: HHS Needs to Strengthen Dissemination and Data-Capacity-Building Efforts, GAO-15-280
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 3, 2015); Comparative Effectiveness: Initial Assessment of the Patient-Centered Outcomes
Research Institute, GAO-15-301 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 9, 2015); Comparative Effectiveness Research: Activities
Funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, GAO-18-311 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 23, 2018);
and Comparative Effectiveness Research: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and HHS Continue
Activities and Plan New Efforts, GAO-21-61 (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 18, 2020).
