TITLE I: DEFINITIONS AND ENACTMENT
1. For purposes of this act
covered entity means any insurer who sells or offers health insurance in the Southern Region and any healthcare provider who operates in the Southern Region.
2. For purposes of this act
disability includes but is not limited to physical, mental, and development disabilities. Down syndrome constitutes a disability.
3. This act shall take effect ninety (90) days after its passage.
TITLE II: ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
1. It is unlawful for a covered entity to do any of the following, solely on the basis of an individual’s disability:
A. Consider an individual ineligible to receive an anatomical gift or organ transplant.
B. Deny medical services or other services related to organ transplantation, including diagnostic services, evaluation, surgery, counseling, and post-operative treatment and services.
C. Refuse to refer the individual to a transplant center or other related specialist for the purpose of being evaluated for or receiving an organ transplant.
D. Refuse to place a qualified recipient on an organ transplant waiting list.
E. Place a qualified recipient on an organ transplant waiting list at a lower priority position than the position at which the individual would have been placed if the individual did not have a disability.
F. Refuse insurance coverage for any procedure associated with being evaluated for or receiving an anatomical gift or organ transplant, including post-transplantation and post-transfusion care.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 1 of this title, a covered entity may take an individual’s disability into account when making treatment or coverage recommendations or decisions, solely to the extent that the disability has been found by a physician or surgeon, following an individualized evaluation of the individual, to be medically significant to the provision of the anatomical gift.
3. If an individual has the necessary support system to assist the individual in complying with post-transplant medical requirements, a covered entity may not consider the individual’s inability to independently comply with post-transplant medical requirements to be medically significant for the purposes of section 2 of this title.
4. A covered entity shall make reasonable modifications to its policies, practices, or procedures to allow individuals with disabilities access to transplantation-related services, including diagnostic services, surgery, coverage, post-operative treatment, and counseling, unless the covered entity can demonstrate that making such modifications would fundamentally alter the nature of such services.
5. A covered entity shall take steps necessary to ensure that an individual with a disability is not denied medical services or other services related to organ transplantation, including diagnostic services, surgery, post-operative treatment, or counseling, due to the absence of auxiliary aids or services, unless the covered entity demonstrates that taking these steps would fundamentally alter the nature of the medical services or other services related to organ transplantation.
6. The provisions of this title apply to all stages of the organ transplant process.
7. No covered entity offering a health insurance policy in the Southern Region that provides coverage for anatomical gifts, organ transplants, or treatment and services related to anatomical gifts or transplants shall do any of the following:
A. Deny coverage to an insured solely on the basis of that individual’s disability.
B. Deny to an individual eligibility, or continued eligibility, to enroll or to renew coverage under the terms of a health insurance policy solely for the purpose of avoiding the requirements of this section.
C. Attempt to induce a health care provider to provide care to an insured in a manner inconsistent with this section by penalizing or otherwise reducing or limiting the reimbursement of a health care provider, or by providing monetary or nonmonetary incentives to a health care provider.
D. Reduce or limit health benefit plan coverage benefits to an insured for any services related to organ transplantation performed determined to be necessary in consultation with the attending physician and the insured.
E. In the case of a health benefit plan maintained pursuant to one or more collective bargaining agreements between employee representatives and one or more employers, any amendment to the health benefit plan made pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement solely to conform to this section shall not be treated as a termination of the collective bargaining agreement.
F. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to require an insurer to provide coverage for a medically inappropriate organ transplant.
TITLE III: LIFE SUPPORT
1. No healthcare facility shall discontinue life-sustaining treatment to an incapacitated patient solely due to the futility of the patient's eventual recovery, unless the patient has signed an advance medical directive authorizing such discontinuation.
TITLE IV: FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS
1. No court in the Southern Region shall hear or rule upon any civil case raising a claim of wrongful birth or wrongful life.
