LOVE Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The LOVE Act adds a living kidney donor transplant facilitator training demonstration to Social Security Act section 1881. Within 180 days, HHS must establish an 8-year program paying each participating eligible hospital the reasonable costs of operating a training program for living kidney donor transplant facilitators. A hospital is eligible if kidney transplants are performed there. Trained facilitators help Medicare Part A and B beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease identify prospective living kidney donors and help covered living donors navigate the donation process. HHS may waive Medicare provisions needed to implement the demonstration. Six years after enactment, HHS must report to the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees and the Senate Finance Committee on increases in living kidney donors, increases in living-donor kidney transplants, recipient outcomes, Medicare cost savings from more transplants and less dialysis, and qualitative information from facilitators, volunteers, donors, and recipients, then submit annual updates for the next two years.
Who Benefits and How
Medicare ESRD beneficiaries, kidney transplant recipients, prospective living kidney donors, transplant hospitals, trained donor facilitators, and Medicare beneficiaries facing dialysis benefit from funded navigation support intended to increase living-donor transplants and reduce dialysis reliance.
Who Bears the Burden and How
HHS, CMS, participating transplant hospitals, facilitator training programs, and congressional health committees must administer payments, waivers, eligibility, outcome measurement, cost-savings analysis, interviews, and reports.
Key Provisions
- Creates an 8-year Medicare demonstration for living kidney donor transplant facilitator training.
- Requires HHS within 180 days to pay eligible kidney-transplant hospitals reasonable annual training-program costs.
- Directs facilitators to help Medicare ESRD beneficiaries identify living donors and navigate kidney donation.
- Authorizes Medicare waiver authority for implementation.
- Requires reports on donor counts, transplant counts, outcomes, Medicare cost savings, and qualitative interviews after six years and annually for two more years.
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
Creates an 8-year Medicare demonstration under which CMS pays kidney-transplant hospitals the reasonable costs of training living kidney donor transplant facilitators who help Medicare ESRD beneficiaries identify potential living donors and navigate the donation process, with waiver authority and reports on donor counts, transplant outcomes, Medicare savings, and participant interviews.
Key Policy Areas
Healthcare, Medicare, Organ Transplantation
Primary Purpose
Creates an 8-year Medicare demonstration under which CMS pays kidney-transplant hospitals the reasonable costs of training living kidney donor transplant facilitators who help Medicare ESRD beneficiaries identify potential living donors and navigate the donation process, with waiver authority and reports on donor counts, transplant outcomes, Medicare savings, and participant interviews.
Policy Domains
Bill-wide scope
Identified Gains
- Medicare ESRD beneficiaries
- Kidney transplant recipients
- Prospective living kidney donors
- Transplant hospitals
- Living donor facilitators
Identified Costs
- HHS
- CMS
- Participating transplant hospitals
- Facilitator training programs
- Congressional health committees
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in …
Introduced in House
Ms. Malliotakis (for herself and Mr. Gottheimer) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Kidney transplant recipients, Living donor facilitators, Transplant hospitals
CMS, Medicare ESRD beneficiaries
Positive-direction: Medicare ESRD beneficiaries
Negative-direction: CMS
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "Secretary"
- → Secretary of Health and Human Services
- "primary_beneficiaries"
- → Medicare ESRD beneficiaries, Kidney transplant recipients, Prospective living kidney donors, Transplant hospitals, Living donor facilitators
- "primary_burden_bearers"
- → HHS, CMS, Participating transplant hospitals, Facilitator training programs, Congressional health committees
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