Seniors’ Access to Critical Medications Act of 2025

Key Points

• This bill creates a new exception to Medicare's physician self-referral law (known as the Stark Law), allowing doctors to dispense prescription drugs directly to their Medicare patients. Currently, the Stark Law generally prohibits doctors from referring patients for services they have a financial interest in, but this bill carves out a five-year window to let physician practices dispense Part D drugs.
• To qualify, patients must have an ongoing relationship with the prescribing doctor and must have had at least one in-person visit in the past year. The drugs must be prescribed by the referring physician or another doctor in the same group practice.
• Patients can pick up medications at the doctor's office or receive them by mail, delivery, or courier service. This is intended to make it easier for seniors who may have trouble getting to a separate pharmacy.
• The exception is temporary, lasting five years from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2030. This sunset gives Congress time to evaluate the program before deciding whether to extend it.
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) must study the effects of this change within three years, looking at how physician-dispensed drugs affect prescribing patterns, conflicts of interest, and the broader drug supply chain.
• The bill reduces the Medicare Improvement Fund by $18 million (from $1.804 billion to $1.786 billion) to offset the costs of this new exception.