To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to require hospitals participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to establish certain notification procedures with respect to organ procurement agencies.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMs. Van Duyne (for herself, Ms. DelBene, Mrs. Miller of …
Summary
What This Bill Does
This legislation amends the Social Security Act to require hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs to implement automated electronic notification systems for organ procurement agencies. Starting 2 years after enactment, when hospital electronic health records indicate a patient is deceased or death is imminent, the hospital's designated organ procurement agency must automatically receive an electronic notification AND be granted remote access to that patient's medical records.
Who Benefits and How
Organ Procurement Agencies: Gain real-time automated notifications of potential donors instead of relying on manual hospital reporting, plus direct EHR access to evaluate organ viability faster.
Patients Awaiting Transplants: More organs may become available through faster identification and evaluation of potential donors.
Electronic Health Record Companies: New federal requirements create demand for EHR integration capabilities and compliance consulting services.
Healthcare IT Service Providers: Implementation of automated notification systems creates new business opportunities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals: Must invest in technology upgrades to implement automated notification systems and EHR integration with organ procurement agencies. Face compliance deadlines and potential Medicare/Medicaid participation consequences.
Rural and Under-resourced Hospitals: May struggle with implementation costs and technology infrastructure (limited broadband). However, 3-year exemptions are available for significant hardship cases.
Key Provisions
- Mandatory EHR Integration: 2-year deadline for hospitals to implement automated notifications to OPAs when potential donors identified
- Remote EHR Access: OPAs must be given electronic access to potential donor medical records
- Hardship Exemptions: 3-year exemptions available for rural hospitals or those with insufficient internet access
- Automatic Exemptions: 1-year exemptions for hospitals hit by cybersecurity attacks or natural disasters
- HHS Guidance Requirement: Secretary must issue guidance within 1 year on best practices for compliance
- State Agency Guidance: Secretary must issue guidance to state health agencies on explaining new requirements to donors and families
- GAO Study: Comptroller General must study implementation costs, rural impact, data security issues, and transplant outcomes within 3 years
- Congressional Reporting: Annual reports on exemptions granted required starting 2 years after enactment
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Requires hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid to implement automated electronic notifications and EHR access for organ procurement agencies when potential organ donors are identified (deceased or imminent death).
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Improves organ donation outcomes by mandating technology integration between hospitals and organ procurement agencies, with reasonable exemptions for rural and disaster-affected facilities."
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Health and Human Services
- "comptroller_general"
- → Comptroller General of the United States (GAO)
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Any kind of malicious activity that attempts to collect, modify, disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy information system resources of the hospital, affects the confidentiality, integrity or availability of data/systems, or poses any other threat to information systems or technological capabilities.
System where organ procurement agencies are automatically notified when EHR records indicate a potential donor is deceased or death is imminent, with remote access to relevant records.
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