Bill > S5437

This bill authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to collect registration fees from members of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) for each transplant candidate they place on the network's waiting list. The fees can only be used to support OPTN operations and will be collected either directly by the Secretary or through awards made to OPTN. The bill requires full transparency, mandating that the OPTN website publicly post the amount of fees collected from each member and detail how those fees are used, with quarterly updates. The legislation also adds several new responsibilities for the OPTN, including encouraging electronic health record integration across hospitals and organ procurement organizations, creating a dashboard to display transplant and organ allocation statistics, and ensuring compliance with HIPAA privacy regulations. A provision requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the fee collection activities within two years and submit a report to specific congressional committees. The fee collection authority is time-limited, expiring five years after the bill's enactment. These changes aim to provide additional funding and improve the efficiency and transparency of the organ transplantation system in the United States.