Patient Access Act of 2024

The Patient Access Act of 2024 allows drug manufacturers to cover certain travel, lodging, and meal expenses for patients prescribed specialty drugs who live more than 1 hour driving distance (or 50 miles) from a treatment facility and have income below the median for their area. It permits manufacturers to pay for transportation, lodging near the facility, and meals during treatment periods, but only if patients aren’t already receiving these services for free from the facility and manufacturers don’t advertise the program before a prescription is issued. The bill also requires manufacturers to certify they won’t shift costs to Medicare or Medicaid and mandates a GAO study to track impacts on access, costs, and disparities for these patients. This applies specifically to patients needing transformative therapies like rare disease treatments, with the program starting January 1, 2025.