I 

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. MILLERMEEKS) 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Organ Donation Refer5 ral Improvement Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. STUDYING ELECTRONIC AUTOMATED REFERRAL 

2 FOR ORGAN DONATIONS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 

4 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and 

5 Human Services, acting through the Assistant Secretary 

6 for Planning and Evaluation (referred to in this Act as 

7 the ‘‘Secretary’’), shall conduct and complete a study on 

8 existing efforts of hospitals with respect to electronic auto9 mated referrals for purposes of organ donation. 

10 (b) STUDY COMPONENTS.—The study conducted 

11 under subsection (a) shall— 

12 (1) identify savings in staff time, variation in 

13 timeliness to determine eligibility for organ donation, 

14 as well as potential improvement over human inter15 action for the identification of potential organ do16 nors, if any, attained through the use of electronic 

17 automated referrals; 

18 (2) identify benefits, if any, in identifying po19 tential organ donors through the use of electronic 

20 medical records and standardized clinical criteria; 

21 (3) review the impact of such electronic auto22 mated referrals, without the need for manual report23 ing, on donation volumes; 

24 (4) assess published peer-reviewed clinical lit25 erature on such electronic automated referrals; 


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1 (5) review best practices for using such elec2 tronic automated referrals; 

3 (6) review information technology practices to 

4 ensure the secure transmission of information for 

5 purposes of such referrals; 

6 (7) develop recommendations to promote the 

7 use of such electronic automated referrals; and 

8 (8) identify what actions are needed to establish 

9 the use of such electronic automated referrals na10 tionwide. 

11 (c) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 

12 of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to 

13 the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Com14 mittee on Ways and Means of the House of Representa15 tives and the Committee on Finance and the Committee 

16 on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate 

17 a report on the results of the study conducted under sub18 section (a). 

19 (d) ELECTRONIC AUTOMATED REFERRAL DE20 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘electronic automated 

21 referral’’ means an electronic system that identifies poten22 tial deceased organ donors via clinical criteria in a pa23 tient’s electronic health record and automatically refers 


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1 such patients to the hospital’s collaborating organ pro2 curement organization. 

Æ 


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