42 U.S.C. § 299 — Mission and duties

(a) In general This creates, within the Public Health Service, an agency called the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, run by a director the Secretary appoints. The Secretary carries out this subchapter through that Director. (b) Mission The Agency's job is to make health care better, more appropriate, and more effective, and to widen access to it, through scientific research and by promoting better clinical and health-system practices, including disease prevention. It does this by conducting and supporting: (1) research that builds scientific evidence about health care, including — (A) ways to help patients take part in their own care and share decisions with their doctor; (B) how well health care practices work, how much they cost, and how cost-effective they are, including prevention and long-term care; (C) existing and new health technologies; (D) health care costs, use, and access; (E) how health services are organized, delivered, and paid for, and how that affects care quality; (F) ways to measure and improve quality; and (G) how patients, consumers, buyers, and providers learn about best practices and health benefits; (2) spreading that scientific evidence to patients, consumers, providers, purchasers, policymakers, and educators; and (3) efforts to improve health care quality across the public and private sectors. (c) Requirements with respect to rural and inner-city areas and priority populations (1) The Director must research, evaluate, and support demonstration projects on: (A) health care delivery in inner cities and rural (including frontier) areas; and (B) health care for priority populations — low-income people, minority groups, women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities or who need chronic or end-of-life care. (2) The Director must set up a process to make sure the Agency's overall research reflects those priorities. (3) The Director must create an Office of Priority Populations to help carry this out.