H.R. 1520 — Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act

This section defines 10 terms for purposes of the Act, including “auxiliary aids and services” and “disability” (each as defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990), “covered entity” (i.e., licensed health care providers and transplant hospitals engaged in or substantially affecting interstate commerce), “qualified individual” (i.e., an individual eligible for a human organ with or without support, auxiliary aids, or reasonable modifications), “reasonable modifications to policies or practices” (e.g., considering support networks such as family, friends, or home- and community-based services funded under Medicare or Medicaid), “related services” (e.g., evaluation, counseling, treatment, and postoperative care for organ transplants), “supported decision-making” (i.e., assistance from a support person in health care decisions, including auxiliary aids and coordination with guardians), and “support network” (i.e., persons selected by or serving the qualified individual, such as family or community personnel).

This section prohibits the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) board of directors from issuing policies, recommendations, or other memoranda that prohibit or otherwise hinder a qualified individual's access to an organ transplant solely on the basis of that individual's disability. (The OPTN, operated under HHS authority, establishes the national waiting list and computer matching system for organ allocation equitably among transplant patients nationwide.)

This section prohibits a covered entity from denying a qualified individual with disabilities an organ transplant or related services (including determining ineligibility, refusing referral to a transplant center, or refusing placement on a transplant waiting list), solely on the basis of the individual's disability. It permits consideration of a disability found by a physician—following an individualized evaluation—to be medically significant to the transplant or services (but not if medically inappropriate), and clarifies that an inability to independently comply with post-transplant requirements is not medically significant if a support network provides reasonable assurance of compliance. The section requires covered entities to make reasonable modifications to policies and practices (including providing auxiliary aids and services) necessary for qualified individuals to access transplants or services, unless such modifications fundamentally alter the entity's operations or impose an undue burden. It preserves rights and obligations under other laws, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794), and authorizes claims alleging violations to be brought to the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights for expedited resolution (without limiting other remedies).

This section specifies that provisions of the Act applicable to organ transplants also apply to the evaluation and listing of qualified individuals, the transplant procedure itself, and post-transplant treatment; and that provisions applicable to related services also apply to the process for receiving such services.

This section specifies that nothing in the Act supersedes any state or local law providing greater rights to qualified individuals with respect to organ transplants than the rights established under the Act.