The civic record
Read. Follow. Verify.Kentucky Bill Allows Terminally Ill Patients to Access Customized Experimental Treatments
Last action · February 10, 2026: to Health Services (H)Sponsor: Vanessa Grossl
Track this bill to get notified when it advances a stage. One tap to stop, anytime.
What This Bill Proposed
Kentucky legislation permits manufacturers to provide customized experimental drugs, biological products, or devices to eligible patients with life-threatening or severely debilitating illnesses. The bill protects treating physicians from losing their medical licenses or certifications for recommending these treatments and shields manufacturers and health care providers from lawsuits if they act in good faith. Additionally, patients' estates are protected from inheriting treatment-related debts if the patient passes away.
Patients facing severe illnesses gain legal access to personalized experimental treatments without risking their doctors' professional standing, though insurance plans and third-party administrators are not obligated to cover the associated expenses.
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Eligible patients
Patients with life-threatening or severely debilitating illnesses gain the legal ability to request and receive customized investigational treatments while assuming financial liability for costs.
Health care providers
Physicians and providers are protected from license revocation, certification loss, and civil liability when recommending individualized investigational treatments in good faith.
Manufacturers
Makers of investigational drugs and devices are granted discretion to supply customized products with or without cost and receive immunity from private right of action under good-faith compliance.
Health insurers and third-party administrators
Insurers retain no legal obligation to pay for care or treatments resulting from the use of individualized investigational products.
Key Facts
- An eligible patient is defined as an individual with a life-threatening or severely debilitating illness who has considered all FDA-approved options, received a treating physician's recommendation, and provided written informed consent.
- An individualized investigational drug, biological product, or device is uniquely produced for a single patient based on their genetic profile, such as individualized gene therapies or neoantigen vaccines.
- Manufacturers operating within an eligible facility may choose to provide experimental treatments without compensation or require patients to pay manufacturing costs.
- If an eligible patient dies during treatment, the patient's heirs are legally protected from inheriting outstanding treatment-related debts.
Show all 9 facts
- Licensing boards are prohibited from revoking, suspending, or taking disciplinary action against a Kentucky-licensed health care provider solely for recommending an individualized investigational treatment.
- The Cabinet for Health and Family Services cannot penalize a health care provider's Medicare or Medicaid certification solely for recommending access to an experimental treatment.
- State officials, employees, and agents are barred from blocking an eligible patient's access to an authorized experimental treatment.
- Manufacturers and health care providers are immune from civil lawsuits for harm caused to a patient, provided they made a good-faith effort to comply and exercised reasonable care.
- Health insurance policies, plans, and third-party administrators are not required to cover costs associated with individualized investigational treatments unless mandated by law or contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who qualifies as an eligible patient under this bill?
Are health insurance companies required to pay for these experimental treatments?
Can a doctor lose their medical license for recommending an experimental treatment?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
Follow the record
Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · in House committee.
Procedural history
2 actions- Feb 10, 2026HouseCommitteeto Health Services (H)
- Feb 3, 2026HouseIntroducedintroduced in House to Committee on Committees (H)
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Creation of State-Level Framework for Custom Investigational Therapies
The bill creates a formal statutory pathway allowing patients with severe illnesses to access unapproved, patient-specific biological products and gene therapies while shielding providers and manufacturers from liability.
Connected Entities
Sources
apps.legislature.ky.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 75)
- Controversy40Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment10Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz35Current news / social attention level
Publisher tools