PCORI's Budget Doubles in 2014

According to a Congressional Quarterly article published on the Commonwealth Fund's website, the 2014 budget for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will increase from $320 million in 2013 to $650 million next year because of a surcharge on Medicare premiums and premiums charged by commercial insurers and employer plan sponsors under the health law. Some of the money will focus on product-to-product comparisons, according to a new analysis by the California Healthcare Institute. But most of it won't, instead paying for studies on how to improve teamwork among doctors, for example, or the ways in which doctors communicate with patients about potential treatments. Insiders refer to such approaches as "systems interventions."

That differs from the original vision many promoters of comparative effectiveness research had for the field—one in which studies would be focused predominantly on investigating which drug, device or other treatment worked best for a particular condition. The two fields—treatment comparisons and system interventions—can work hand in hand. However, the full funding of PCORI in 2014 is a development most observers haven't noticed when they discuss the big changes coming next year under the health law. But it's an important one, analysts say.