Deadline to Submit PCORI Fees

• Self-insured group health plans

7/31 of calendar year that immediately follows last day of plan year to which fees apply.

For non-calendar-year plans, for example, that end on 9/30, fees would be due the next 7/31.

IRS. 

IRS.

Plans and insurers pay fees to fund PCORI.

PCORI funds research projects in the area of evidence-based medicine with a goal to advance quality of care. Initially set to sunset in 2019, Congress extended the fees for an additional 10 years. PCORI fees now apply through plan years ending on or before 9/30/29.

In 2020, the IRS raised the fee that insurers or self-insured health plan sponsors will pay in 2021 to fund the federal Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) trust fund. The fee will be $2.66 per plan enrollee, up from $2.54 for the 2020 plan year, according to Notice 2020-84, which the IRS issued on Nov. 24.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund fee is a fee on issuers of specified health insurance policies and plan sponsors of applicable self-insured health plans that helps to fund the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The institute will help patients, clinicians, purchasers and policymakers make better-informed healthcare choices by advancing clinical effectiveness research.