All Roll Calls
Yes: 183 • No: 0
IowaSF 23391st General Assembly (2025–2026)SenateWALLET
A bill for an act relating to the right to try Act. (Formerly SF 56.) Effective date: 07/01/2025.
Sponsored By: COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Signed by Governor
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 1 costs, 1 mixed.
Experimental treatment access for seriously ill patients
Beginning July 1, 2025, Iowa provides two paths to experimental treatment with a doctor's recommendation and documented eligibility. Patients with a progressive, irreversible illness expected to cause death without life support must consider or try and reject all FDA-approved options. Investigational drugs, biological products, and devices must complete FDA Phase 1 trials but remain unapproved for general use. A second path covers life-threatening or severely disabling illnesses using treatments made only for one patient, based on genetic information. These patients must exhaust approved options because treatment is medically unsuitable, has failed or may fail, or causes or risks harmful reactions. Their doctor must recommend personalized treatment based on genetic or related biological analysis, and written informed consent is required.
Heirs gain protection from treatment debts
Beginning July 1, 2025, heirs gain debt protection when a patient dies while receiving a covered experimental treatment. Unless other law requires payment, heirs are not liable for outstanding debts tied to treatment or treatment-related loss of insurance. This protection does not erase the patient's own bills or necessarily prevent claims against the patient's estate.
State barriers limited for experimental treatment
Beginning July 1, 2025, Iowa officials, employees, and agents cannot block or try to block eligible patients' treatment access. Doctors remain free to give advice that follows medical standards. As state law allows, the Iowa Board of Medicine cannot penalize a doctor's license solely for recommending covered experimental treatment. As federal law allows, entities overseeing Medicare certification cannot penalize a doctor's certification solely for that recommendation.
Experimental treatment remains optional and potentially costly
Beginning July 1, 2025, qualifying facilities and manufacturers can offer experimental treatments free or charge patients manufacturing and related costs. Eligible facilities must operate under a federalwide assurance for protecting human research participants; manufacturers within them must follow applicable requirements. Manufacturers and facilities do not have to supply treatment, and hospitals need not add services unless they approve them. Health plans, plan administrators, and government agencies can cover treatment and related services, but this law requires no payment. Existing Iowa insurance requirements for clinical trial coverage remain unchanged.
Patients get treatment risk and cost disclosures
Beginning July 1, 2025, written consent requires signatures from the patient or guardian, treating doctor, and a witness. It must explain approved options, identify the experimental treatment, and describe possible outcomes, including worse symptoms or earlier death. Personalized-treatment consent must describe the best, worst, and most likely outcomes and state that recognized treatments are unlikely to prolong life. Consent must explain insurance coverage, who pays, hospice effects, and possible claims against the patient's estate unless an agreement removes them.
Patients face limits on treatment lawsuits
Beginning July 1, 2025, the law limits civil liability for harm caused by covered experimental treatments, including personalized treatments. The protection covers manufacturers, eligible facilities, and others involved in the patient's care. It applies only when they follow the chapter in good faith and use reasonable care. Patients' legal options are narrower when those protections apply.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Affiliation unavailable
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 4/22/2025
Passed Senate
Yes: 46 • No: 0
House vote • 3/20/2025
Passed House
Yes: 89 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/18/2025
Passed Senate
Yes: 48 • No: 0
Actions Timeline
Signed by Governor.
5/19/2025SenateReported correctly enrolled, signed by President and Speaker, and sent to Governor.
5/19/2025SenateMessage from Senate.
4/22/2025HouseImmediate message.
4/22/2025SenatePassed Senate, yeas 46, nays 0.
4/22/2025SenateSenate concurred with S-3038.
4/22/2025SenateExplanations of votes.
3/25/2025HouseExplanation of vote.
3/25/2025HouseMessage from House, with amendment S-3038.
3/24/2025SenateImmediate message.
3/20/2025HousePassed House, yeas 89, nays 0.
3/20/2025HouseAmendment H-1132 adopted.
3/20/2025HouseSubstituted for HF 802.
3/20/2025HouseAmendment H-1132 filed.
3/19/2025HousePlaced on calendar under unfinished business.
3/18/2025HouseRead first time, passed on file.
3/18/2025HouseMessage from Senate.
3/18/2025HouseImmediate message.
3/18/2025SenatePassed Senate, yeas 48, nays 0.
3/18/2025SenateCommittee report, approving bill.
2/10/2025SenateIntroduced, placed on calendar.
2/10/2025Senate
Bill Text
As Introduced
Enrolled
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