Organ Donation Referral Improvement Act

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9939 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 9939

 To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through 
the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, to conduct a study 
 on existing efforts of hospitals with respect to electronic automated 
   referrals for purposes of organ donation, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 4, 2024

  Mr. Wittman (for himself, Ms. McClellan, Mr. Costa, and Mrs. Miller-
    Meeks) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through 
the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, to conduct a study 
 on existing efforts of hospitals with respect to electronic automated 
   referrals for purposes of organ donation, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Organ Donation Referral Improvement 
Act''.

SEC. 2. STUDYING ELECTRONIC AUTOMATED REFERRAL FOR ORGAN DONATIONS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than one year after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 
acting through the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation 
(referred to in this Act as the ``Secretary''), shall conduct and 
complete a study on existing efforts of hospitals with respect to 
electronic automated referrals for purposes of organ donation.
    (b) Study Components.--The study conducted under subsection (a) 
shall--
            (1) identify savings in staff time, variation in timeliness 
        to determine eligibility for organ donation, as well as 
        potential improvement over human interaction for the 
        identification of potential organ donors, if any, attained 
        through the use of electronic automated referrals;
            (2) identify benefits, if any, in identifying potential 
        organ donors through the use of electronic medical records and 
        standardized clinical criteria;
            (3) review the impact of such electronic automated 
        referrals, without the need for manual reporting, on donation 
        volumes;
            (4) assess published peer-reviewed clinical literature on 
        such electronic automated referrals;
            (5) review best practices for using such electronic 
        automated referrals;
            (6) review information technology practices to ensure the 
        secure transmission of information for purposes of such 
        referrals;
            (7) develop recommendations to promote the use of such 
        electronic automated referrals; and
            (8) identify what actions are needed to establish the use 
        of such electronic automated referrals nationwide.
    (c) Report.--Not later than one year after the date of enactment of 
this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Energy and 
Commerce and the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of 
Representatives and the Committee on Finance and the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate a report on the 
results of the study conducted under subsection (a).
    (d) Electronic Automated Referral Defined.--In this section, the 
term ``electronic automated referral'' means an electronic system that 
identifies potential deceased organ donors via clinical criteria in a 
patient's electronic health record and automatically refers such 
patients to the hospital's collaborating organ procurement 
organization.
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