The House and Senate health care reform proposals create federal comparative effectiveness research centers to conduct, support, and disseminate findings from comparative effectiveness research. The Senate bill creates an independent, nonprofit corporation, to be known as the “Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute,” to identify priorities for and to conduct comparative outcomes research. Similarly, the House bill creates a new center within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, referred to as the “Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research.” This new center would be responsible for conducting, supporting, and synthesizing outcomes research to assess the effectiveness and appropriateness of health care services and procedures. Although the goal of both proposals is to identify effective and efficient treatment options, they give rise to questions about exactly how comparative effectiveness research results will be used, and the extent to which they will influence coverage and reimbursement policies or otherwise impact patient care and potentially limit provider treatment choices.