Comparative Effectiveness: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Process for Awarding Recovery Act Funds and Disseminating Results

摘要

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provided $1.1 billion to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comparative effectiveness research (CER), which is research that compares different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor health conditions. Of this amount, HHS's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) received $474 million to support and disseminate the results of CER. GAO was asked to describe issues including the (1) process and criteria AHRQ used to award Recovery Act funds for CER, including steps to coordinate CER awards with other HHS entities in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort; and (2) plans AHRQ has for disseminating the results of CER it funded under the Recovery Act. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed relevant documentation, including AHRQ's policies and procedures for selecting the recipients of grants; internal documents that describe the award of Recovery Act grants and contracts; and Recovery Act contractors' work plans. GAO also analyzed AHRQ data on the number and type of grants and contracts awarded Recovery Act CER funds. GAO interviewed AHRQ officials on the selection of Recovery Act CER grantees and contractors, including coordination with other HHS agencies that received Recovery Act CER funds, and the plans the agency has to disseminate the results of CER funded by the Recovery Act. AHRQ provided technical comments, which GAO incorporated as appropriate.