Elation Joins Broad National Coalition Urging Congress to Fully Fund AHRQ and Protect Evidence-Based, Patient-Centered Care

This month, Elation Health joined more than 260 leading organizations in calling on Congress to fully fund the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) at $500 million in FY27 and ensure the Agency has the staffing it needs to fulfill its mission.

The sign-on letter, organized by the Friends of AHRQ coalition and transmitted to House and Senate appropriators, represents a powerful and growing alliance of researchers, patients, clinicians, health systems, nurses, specialists, payers, universities, and health tech innovators united around a shared belief: patients deserve care grounded in evidence, delivered in trusted relationships, and supported by a strong, learning health system.

For Elation, a primary care–first health technology company, this is not an abstract policy debate. It’s about whether physicians, care teams, and patients will continue to have the independent, practice-level evidence they need to deliver high-quality, whole-person, patient-centered care.

Why AHRQ Matters for Primary Care and Patients

AHRQ is the nation’s leading federal agency for health services research (HSR) and primary care research (PCR)—the science that examines how care is organized, delivered, and experienced in real-world settings. Unlike many research agencies that focus on a single disease or organ system, AHRQ funds research at the point of care, helping us understand what works, for whom, and in which care environments.

In practical terms, AHRQ:

• Builds the evidence base for high-value primary care. AHRQ’s primary care research helps clinicians and policymakers design systems that prioritize access, continuity, coordination, and relationships—core tenets of strong primary care and the foundation of better population health.

• Strengthens rural and underserved communities. At a time when rural hospitals and clinics are closing and the opioid crisis continues to take lives, AHRQ has long identified rural populations as a priority, funding research to shore up fragile local health systems and improve outcomes where infrastructure is weakest.

• Makes care safer and more affordable. Implementing AHRQ-funded studies to reduce hospital-acquired conditions prevented an estimated 20,500 hospital deaths and saved $7.7 billion in health care costs between 2014 and 2017—concrete proof that investing in HSR saves lives and lowers spending.

• Guides how innovation shows up in exam rooms. From telehealth to care coordination tools, AHRQ research helps ensure technology is implemented in ways that expand access and equity instead of widening gaps. For example, AHRQ-supported work examines how to deliver telehealth consistently and equitably, regardless of a patient’s location, condition, or access to devices and broadband.

In the words of the coalition letter, AHRQ is a critical “bridge between cures and care” and a “federal vehicle for studying and improving the United States healthcare system.” It funds the “last mile” of research that ensures breakthroughs in science translate into better outcomes in exam rooms, community clinics, and patients’ homes.

When AHRQ is weakened, physicians and care teams lose a vital source of independent, practice-relevant evidence. Patients lose out on safer, more coordinated, more equitable care.

What the Coalition Is Asking Congress to Do

The Friends of AHRQ letter urges Congress to take two clear, concrete steps in the FY27 Labor-HHS appropriations bill:

1. Fully fund AHRQ at no less than $500 million in FY27. This funding level reflects the scale of the challenges facing our health system and the need to expand and accelerate health services research investments that guide decisions about care delivery, payment, and quality.

2. Ensure sufficient staffing for AHRQ to fulfill its statutory mission. Adequate staff are essential for managing grants, reviewing science, and overseeing the diverse portfolio of work that makes care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable.

The coalition also sounds the alarm that insufficient funding and reductions in force have significantly undermined AHRQ’s ability to meet its statutory responsibilities—even as the need for system-level evidence grows.

In short: this is a decisive moment. Either we invest in the science of care delivery, or we ask clinicians and patients to navigate a complex, fragmented system without a map.

Why Elation Is Standing Up for AHRQ and Evidence-Based, Patient-Centered Care

Elation’s mission is to power primary care that puts patients first. We believe the most meaningful health outcomes are achieved when physicians have trusted relationships, actionable data, and the time and tools to practice the art and science of medicine.

That mission is inseparable from AHRQ’s work:

• AHRQ’s primary care research helps define what high-quality primary care looks like and how to deliver it sustainably across communities.

• Its health services research provides the evidence backbone for innovations that must ultimately work in the real world—at the front desk, in the exam room, and across care teams—not just in controlled environments.

• Its focus on safety, access, and equity aligns with the commitments primary care leaders make every day to their patients.

By joining this record-breaking coalition, Elation is standing alongside family physicians, primary care researchers, patient advocates, leading academic centers, and health systems who know that evidence-based, patient-centered care is not negotiable—and that AHRQ is essential to protecting it.

A Call to Action: Keep Evidence at the Heart of American Health Care

The issues that most frustrate patients and clinicians—lack of access, low-value care, long waits, eroding trust, clinician burnout—are the very challenges that health services research is designed to solve. Fully funding AHRQ is one of the most effective ways Congress can:

• Improve patient outcomes

• Strengthen primary care and rural health

• Make care safer and more affordable

• Ensure new technologies and treatments actually work for real people, in real practices

Elation is proud to add our voice to this broad, bipartisan call for action. We are committed to partnering with physicians, policymakers, and fellow advocates to keep evidence-based, patient-centered care at the heart of American health care—for this generation and the next.