# Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act

This bill prevents hospitals and health care providers from automatically disqualifying people with disabilities from receiving organ transplants simply because of their disability. Right now, some transplant centers use disability as a blanket reason to deny someone a transplant or even refuse to evaluate them as a candidate. This bill says that can't happen anymore.

Here's what changes: If you have a physical or mental disability and need an organ transplant, a hospital can't reject you, refuse to put you on a waiting list, or decline to refer you to a transplant specialist just because you have a disability. They also can't deny you related services like pre-transplant evaluation, counseling, or post-transplant care based on your disability alone. The only exception is if a doctor determines that your specific disability is medically relevant to whether you can actually survive and recover from the transplant procedure itself—and even then, they have to do an individualized evaluation rather than making assumptions.

The bill recognizes that many people with disabilities can successfully receive and manage transplants if they have proper support. So if you have family, friends, or community services that can help you take medications and follow medical instructions after surgery, hospitals have to consider that support system when deciding if you're eligible. They also have to make reasonable changes to their procedures to accommodate people with disabilities—like providing interpreters for deaf patients or allowing a trusted person to help you understand medical information if you have an intellectual disability.

If a hospital violates these rules, you can file a complaint with the federal government's Office for Civil Rights, which will investigate. The bill also makes clear it doesn't override stronger protections you might already have under disability rights laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act

Cammack, Kat

Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention ActThis bill expressly prohibits health care providers and other entities involved in matching donated organs with recipients from denying or restricting an individual's access to organ transplants solely on the basis of the individual's disability, except in limited circumstances.Specifically, these entities may consider an individual's disability when making decisions about transplants only if a physician finds, based on an individualized evaluation, that the individual's physical or mental disability is medically significant to the provision of the transplant. A disability shall not be considered medically significant if the individual has an adequate support system in place to comply with transplant-related medical requirements.These entities must also make reasonable changes to their policies to make transplants and related care more available to individuals with disabilities.Aggrieved individuals may bring claims of discrimination to the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services. The bill provides for expedited resolutions of these claims.In addition, the board of directors of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network may not issue policies that prohibit or hinder access to an organ transplant based solely on the individual's disability. This network is a public-private partnership linking professionals involved in the U.S. organ donation and transplantation system.&nbsp;