Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute: Review of the Audit of the FY 2023 Financial Statements
Fast Facts
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute is a federally funded, nonprofit corporation that was established to fund and evaluate research aimed at helping patients, doctors, and policymakers make better health care decisions.
PCORI is required to have its financial statements audited annually, and we're required to review those audits. PCORI's auditor issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on its fiscal year 2023 financial statements, concluding that these fairly presented PCORI's financial position and activities.
We reviewed certain aspects of this financial audit and found no significant issues requiring attention.
Highlights
What GAO Found
GAO reviewed the independent public accounting firm's (IPA) financial audit of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's (PCORI) fiscal year 2023 financial statements. Based on the limited procedures GAO performed in reviewing the IPA's audit, GAO did not identify any significant issues that it believes require attention. Had GAO performed additional procedures, other matters might have come to its attention that it would have reported. The IPA provided an unmodified audit opinion on PCORI's fiscal years 2023 and 2022 financial statements. Specifically, the IPA found that PCORI's financial statements were presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Further, for fiscal year 2023, the IPA did not identify any deficiencies in internal control that it considered to be material weaknesses or any reportable noncompliance with the selected provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements it tested. PCORI concurred with the IPA's conclusions.
Why GAO Did This Study
This report presents the results of GAO's review of PCORI's fiscal year 2023 financial statement audit. PCORI is a federally funded, nonprofit corporation that is neither an agency nor establishment of the U.S. government. PCORI's purpose is to help patients, clinicians, policymakers, and others make informed decisions about their health and health care options.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires PCORI to obtain an annual financial statement audit from a private entity with expertise in conducting financial audits. The act includes a provision for the Comptroller General of the United States to review the audit and report the results to the Congress annually. GAO's objective was to review the financial audit of PCORI's fiscal year 2023 financial statements. To satisfy this objective, GAO (1) read and considered various documents relating to the IPA's independence, objectivity, and qualifications; (2) analyzed key IPA audit documentation; (3) read PCORI's fiscal years 2023 and 2022 financial statements, the IPA's audit report on the financial statements, and the IPA's report on internal control over financial reporting and compliance; and (4) met with IPA representatives and PCORI management officials.
For more information, contact Cheryl E. Clark at (202) 512-9377 or clarkce@gao.gov.