Relief of Chronic Pain Act of 2025
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
Reduces Medicare Part D cost sharing for qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs and bars plans from imposing opioid-first step therapy or prior authorization for those drugs.
Who Benefits and How
Medicare beneficiaries using qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs could pay less and gain faster access to treatment.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Part D plans and federal healthcare spending would bear the cost of lower cost sharing and fewer utilization-management tools.
Key Provisions
- Eliminates deductibles and places qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs on the lowest cost-sharing tier in Part D.
- Bars Part D plans from requiring opioid step therapy or prior authorization for qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Reduces Medicare Part D cost sharing for qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs and bars plans from imposing opioid-first step therapy or prior authorization for those drugs.
Key Policy Areas
Healthcare, Finance
Primary Purpose
Reduces Medicare Part D cost sharing for qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs and bars plans from imposing opioid-first step therapy or prior authorization for those drugs.
Policy Domains
Main Provisions
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Medicare beneficiaries using qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Part D plans and federal healthcare financing supporting the reduced cost-sharing and access rules
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Daines (for himself and Ms. Cantwell) introduced the following …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Medicare beneficiaries using qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs, Part D plans and federal healthcare financing supporting the lower cost sharing, Part D plans restricted from using step therapy and prior authorization for qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs
Positive-direction: Medicare beneficiaries using qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs, Patients seeking qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs
Negative-direction: Part D plans and federal healthcare financing supporting the lower cost sharing, Part D plans restricted from using step therapy and prior authorization for qualifying non-opioid chronic pain drugs
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology