This program offers many resources and services based upon an individual's needs. Financial assistance under Ryan White Part B may be accessed to provide HIV related medical services, diagnostic procedures and prescription pharmaceuticals. Financial assistance may also be utilized for limited dental services. This program is designed to assist individuals so that they can access medical care and thus avoid costly HIV related complications. The individual meets with their case manager to determine intensity of need and the individual's financial situation. Together the client and case manager develop a plan of care for the client and the client's family to best meet their identified needs. The case manager then helps the client to access the variety of services outlined in the plan of care

The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act (Ryan White Care Act, Ryan White, Pub.L. 101-381, 104 Stat. 576, enacted August 18, 1990) was an Act of the U.S. Congress named in honor of Ryan White, an Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS through a tainted hemophilia treatment in 1984, and was expelled from school because of the disease. White became a well-known advocate for AIDS research and awareness, until his death on April 8, 1990

The act is the United States's largest federally funded program for people living with HIV/AIDS. The act sought funding to improve availability of care for low-income, uninsured and under-insured victims of AIDS and their families.

The act passed in the United States House of Representatives by a vote for 402 to 4.

Unlike Medicare or Medicaid, Ryan White programs are "payer of last resort," which fund treatment when no other resources are available. As AIDS has spread, the funding of the program has increased. In 1991, the first year funds were appropriated, around $220 million were spent; by the early 2000s, this number had almost increased 10-fold. The Ryan White Care Act was reauthorized in 1996, 2000 and 2006. The program provides some level of care for around 500,000 people a year and, in 2004, provided funds to 2,567 organizations. The Ryan White programs also fund local and State primary medical care providers, support services, healthcare provider training programs, and provide technical assistance to such organizations.

In fiscal year 2005, federal funding for the Ryan White Care Act was $2.1 billion. As of 2005, roughly one third of this money went to the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) which provides drugs for 30 percent of HIV-infected patients. The primary activity of ADAP is providing FDA-approved prescription medication.

The Ryan White CARE Act mandates that EMS personnel can find out whether they were exposed to life threatening diseases while providing care. The clauses protecting emergency personnel were removed by congressional staffers in a renewal of the bill. The reason for the removal is unclear; some allege the staffers removed the clauses protecting emergency personnel because they did not understand why they were in the original Ryan White act.