Organ Donation and Recovery Improvement Act

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the House passed version is repeated here.)

Organ Donation and Recovery Improvement Act - (Sec. 3) Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to States, transplant centers, qualified organ procurement organizations or other public or private entities to reimburse travel, subsistence, and incidental nonmedical expenses incurred by individuals toward making living organ donations.

(Sec. 4) Directs the Secretary to establish a public education program to increase awareness about organ donation and the need to provide for an adequate rate of donations. Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) make peer-reviewed grants to, or contracts with, public and nonprofit private entities for studies and demonstration projects to increase organ donation and recovery rates, including living donations; (2) make grants to States for organ donor awareness, public education, and outreach activities and programs designed to increase the number of organ donors within the State; and (3) support the development and dissemination of educational materials to inform health care professionals about organ, tissue, and eye donation issues.

Authorizes the Secretary to award matching grants to qualified organ procurement organizations and hospitals to establish programs coordinating organ donation activities of eligible hospitals and qualified organ procurement organizations. (Defines "eligible hospital" as a hospital that performs significant trauma care, or a hospital or consortium of hospitals that serves a population base of not fewer than 200,000 individuals.) Requires a grantee to: (1) establish joint organ procurement organization and hospital designated leadership responsibility and accountability; (2) develop agreed upon project performance goals; (3) collaboratively design and implement a data collection process to provide ongoing project feedback; and (4) contribute at least 30 percent of the grant amount awarded. Requires the Secretary, within three years, to evaluate the extent to which the programs have increased the rate or organ donation.

(Sec. 5) Directs the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to: (1) develop scientific evidence supporting increased organ donation and improved recovery, preservation, and transportation of organs; and (2) support research to develop a uniform clinical vocabulary, to apply information technology to support clinical operations of organ procurement organizations, to enhance the skills of the organ procurement workforce, and to assess organ recovery, preservation, and transportation technologies.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 2005 through 2009.

(Sec. 6) Directs the Secretary to report on organ donation and recovery activities.

(Sec. 7) Authorizes the Secretary to establish and maintain mechanisms to evaluate the long-term effects associated with living organ donations by individuals who have served as living donors.

(Sec. 8) Directs the Secretary to report to Congress on the ethical implications of increasing cadaveric donations.

(Sec. 9) Eliminates certain grant authority with respect to qualified organ procurement organizations.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov