To prohibit discrimination on the basis of mental or physical disability in cases of organ transplants.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act creates a federal transplant-access protection for qualified individuals with mental or physical disabilities. It defines covered entities to include licensed health care practitioners, hospitals, nursing facilities, laboratories, intermediate care facilities, psychiatric residential treatment facilities, institutions for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities, prison health centers, and transplant hospitals that operate in or affect interstate commerce. It defines qualified individuals as people who meet transplant eligibility requirements with or without a support network, auxiliary aids, services, or reasonable policy modifications. The bill bars the national organ-transplant policy board from issuing disability-based policies that hinder access, prohibits covered entities from denying evaluation, referral, waiting-list placement, organ transplants, or related services solely because of disability, and requires reasonable modifications, auxiliary aids, supported decision-making, and consideration of post-transplant support networks. It preserves clinically grounded individualized decisions when a disability is medically significant and preserves stronger state or local rights.
Who Benefits and How
Qualified individuals with disabilities, people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, transplant candidates who use supported decision-making, family caregivers, home and community-based services providers, disability-rights advocates, attorneys-in-fact, health care proxies, and Medicaid or Medicare support-service participants benefit from explicit protection against blanket transplant exclusions. The bill makes it harder for a transplant hospital or clinician to deny access based on assumptions about independent medication management or disability status when a support network or auxiliary aids can address post-transplant requirements.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Transplant hospitals, organ transplant centers, licensed health care practitioners, hospital compliance offices, nursing facilities, laboratories, prison health centers, the national transplant policy board, HHS Office for Civil Rights staff, and physicians making transplant decisions must perform individualized medical evaluations, modify policies when reasonable, provide auxiliary aids and services unless they fundamentally alter care or impose undue burden, account for support networks, avoid discriminatory policies, and handle expedited civil-rights complaints.
Key Provisions
- Defines covered entities, qualified individuals, support networks, supported decision-making, reasonable modifications, auxiliary aids, related services, human organs, and organ transplants.
- Prohibits national transplant policy-board rules that hinder transplant access solely because of disability.
- Bars covered entities from denying eligibility, referral, waiting-list placement, transplants, or related services solely on disability grounds.
- Requires individualized medical significance findings before disability may affect a transplant recommendation or decision.
- Requires reasonable policy modifications, auxiliary aids, supported decision-making, and consideration of post-transplant support networks.
- Provides an HHS Office for Civil Rights complaint path and preserves ADA, Rehabilitation Act, ACA section 1557, state, and local protections.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Prohibits disability-based discrimination in access to organ transplants and related services, defines covered transplant entities and required support accommodations, bars national transplant-policy barriers, preserves individualized medical judgment, and leaves stronger state and local protections intact.
Key Policy Areas
Health Care, Disability Rights, Civil Rights
Primary Purpose
Prohibits disability-based discrimination in access to organ transplants and related services, defines covered transplant entities and required support accommodations, bars national transplant-policy barriers, preserves individualized medical judgment, and leaves stronger state and local protections intact.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Qualified individuals with disabilities
- Transplant candidates with disabilities
- Family caregivers
- Home and community-based services providers
- Disability-rights advocates
- Health care proxies
- Medicaid support-service participants
Identified Costs
- Transplant hospitals
- Organ transplant centers
- Licensed health care practitioners
- Hospital compliance offices
- National transplant policy board
- HHS Office for Civil Rights
- Physicians making transplant decisions
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed HouseAdditional sponsors: Ms. Norton, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Stauber, …
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the …
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Mrs. Cammack (for herself, Mrs. Dingell, Mr. Issa, Ms. Wasserman …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Family caregivers, Qualified individuals with disabilities
Home and community-based services providers, Nursing facilities, Organ transplant centers
Positive-direction: Home and community-based services providers
Negative-direction: Nursing facilities, Organ transplant centers, Physicians making transplant decisions, Transplant hospitals
State disability-rights protections
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "covered_entity"
- → Licensed health care providers and transplant hospitals that operate in or affect interstate commerce.
- "support_network"
- → People selected to help a qualified individual understand issues, make plans, make complex decisions, or comply with post-transplant care.
- "qualified_individual"
- → An individual who meets organ-transplant eligibility requirements with or without support networks, auxiliary aids, services, or reasonable modifications.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology