Rural Kansans need easier access to medications. Here’s one fix | Opinion

In a state like Kansas — where miles often separate families from the nearest specialty medical center — access to affordable, patient-friendly medications isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. That’s why Congress must act now to pass the Ensuring Pathways for Innovative Cures or EPIC Act, a bipartisan solution that would correct a harmful flaw in current law known as the “pill penalty.”

The pill penalty is an unintended consequence of the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug pricing reforms. Under the current rules, oral medications — small-molecule drugs, usually in the form of pills — become eligible for government price negotiation just nine years after Food and Drug Administration approval. In contrast, biologic drugs — often injected or infused in a clinic — are shielded from negotiation for 13 years.

On paper, it might seem like a minor technical difference. But in reality, it creates a major problem: It discourages investment in new, more convenient oral treatments in favor of complex biologics, even when a pill would be just as effective and easier for patients to take.

That’s a problem for everyone — but especially for Kansans.

Kansas is home to thousands of rural residents for whom traveling long distances for infusions is not only inconvenient — it can be a barrier to treatment. For a senior in Hays or a working mom in Dodge City, the ability to take a pill at home can mean the difference between staying on treatment or falling through the cracks. The pill penalty jeopardizes that access by tilting the scales against these patient-friendly therapies.

The EPIC Act would fix this imbalance by aligning the negotiation timelines for small-molecule and biologic drugs — giving all new treatments a fair, 13-year window before facing price-setting under Medicare. This would encourage pharmaceutical companies to continue investing in oral medications that offer flexibility and lower administration costs, and better fit into patients’ daily lives.

Kansas patients deserve a health care system that promotes innovation and puts our real-world needs at the center of policy. The EPIC Act does just that.

We need our congressional delegation to move quickly to pass this commonsense legislation and protect access to tomorrow’s cures — especially those we can take at home.