Sponsors (13)
The bill increases access to donor reimbursements and grants and improves transparency and statutory clarity for transplant programs, but it raises fiscal and oversight risks by broadening eligibility and reporting requirements that could increase costs and administrative burdens.
Low-income and uninsured transplant donors and recipients face fewer financial barriers because reimbursements are based on donor need (not recipient income), likely increasing living donations and improving access to transplants.
Hospitals, nonprofits, and health systems may receive grant funding more often because HHS can award grants to applicants previously excluded, expanding the pool of eligible programs that support transplantation and related services.
Clarifying statutory placement and sentence structure reduces legal ambiguity and administrative confusion for HHS, grant applicants, and grant recipients, likely improving program administration and consistency.
State programs, grant-funded programs, and taxpayers could face higher costs because removing recipient-income screening and expanding reimbursements may increase the number or amount of reimbursements, creating pressure for additional appropriations or crowding out other transplant services.
Removing a categorical exclusion may allow entities or individuals the law previously intended to bar to receive federal funds, risking policy conflicts, misuse of funds, or undermining prior public-health or ethical judgments and increasing oversight burdens for HHS.
Requiring detailed annual reports imposes additional administrative burden and cost on HHS (staff time and resources) to prepare estimates and analyses.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits using an organ recipient’s income to deny living donor reimbursement and requires annual HHS reporting on whether grant funding covered full reimbursements.
Prohibits organizations that receive federal grants for living organ donor reimbursement from using the organ recipient’s income to determine whether a donor can be reimbursed for travel, subsistence, and incidental nonmedical expenses. Removes one categorical exclusion from the statute’s list of circumstances that may bar an award and adds an annual HHS reporting requirement to assess whether grant funding was sufficient to fully reimburse donating individuals and estimate any shortfall.
Introduced January 22, 2025 by Jay Obernolte · Last progress January 22, 2025