PCORI Fee is Back and There?ÇÖs No Relief From Its Deadline: July 31, 2020

The plan year ending before October 1, 2019 was supposed to be the last year that the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (?Ç£PCORI?Ç¥) fee was required to be paid. However, legislation passed in December 2019 extended the PCORI fee for another ten years. Recognizing that plan sponsors believed the PCORI fee was ending and may not have anticipated the need to identify the number of covered lives to determine the PCORI fee, the IRS issued transition relief for the plan year ending before October 1, 2020. Under this transition relief, in addition to using one of the three methods specified in the regulations, plan sponsors may use any reasonable method for calculating the average number of covered lives. For the plan year ending on or after October 1, 2019 and before October 1, 2020, the PCORI fee is $2.54 times the average number of covered lives. Payment of the PCORI fee is due by July 31, 2020.

Notice 2020-44 is available here.