Primary Care Community Urges Congress to Allocate $5 Million for AHRQ’s CPCR

On April 2, 2019, in an effort initiated by the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) and the Council for Academic Family Medicine (CAFM), more than 20 of our nation’s leading organizations, associations, foundations, and institutions supporting primary care research, delivered a letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees requesting $5 million for FY2020 to fund the Center for Primary Care Research (CPCR) at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Since 1999, CPCR has had a statutorily-authorized home at AHRQ. The Center, however, does not receive dedicated funding to conduct the essential research needed to support the complex and multifaceted discipline of primary care. As a nation, investment in primary care is paramount in order to ensure a more efficient, equitable, higher quality health system for all Americans.

The letter emphasizes that, with appropriate funding, the CPCR will improve coordination and emphasize the need for expanded primary care research—both in the clinical and health services spheres. The requested $5 million establishes a funding foothold and is a first-step supporting AHRQ’s unique role to conduct and expand primary care research, furthering the mission of PCPCC’s Shared Principles of Primary Care.