<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><BillSummaries>
    <item congress="119" measure-type="s" measure-number="475" measure-id="id119s475" originChamber="SENATE" orig-publish-date="2025-02-06" update-date="2025-05-08">
        <title>Alternatives to PAIN Act</title>
        <summary summary-id="id119s475v00" currentChamber="SENATE" update-date="2025-05-08">
            <action-date>2025-02-06</action-date>
            <action-desc>Introduced in Senate</action-desc>
            <summary-text><![CDATA[<p><strong>Alternatives to Prevent Addiction In the Nation Act or the Alternatives to PAIN Act</strong></p><p>This bill reduces&nbsp;cost-sharing and prohibits the imposition of certain utilization requirements under the Medicare prescription drug benefit for certain non-opioid pain management drugs.</p><p>Specifically, the bill requires such drugs to be covered without a deductible and to be placed on the lowest cost-sharing tier (if any). The bill also prohibits the imposition of prior authorization requirements (i.e., requiring prior approval from a plan) or step therapy requirements (i.e., requiring the use of alternative drugs before a drug is covered under a plan) with respect to such drugs.</p>]]></summary-text>
        </summary>
    </item>
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        <dc:language>EN</dc:language>
        <dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
        <dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
        <dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
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</BillSummaries>
