H.R. 9877

Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026

Sponsor: Raul Ruiz

26 cosponsors
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I Data collection and reporting

II Culturally and linguistically appropriate health and health care

III Health workforce diversity

A Diversifying the health care workplace

B Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Behavioral and Mental Health Workforce

C ACCESS in Mental Health Act

D Developing the Community Health Workforce Act

IV Improving Health Care Access and Quality

A Reducing Barriers to Accessing Care

B Improvement of Coverage

C Expansion of Access

1 General Provisions

2 Rural

3 Indian Communities

4 Providers

5 Dental

D Advancing Health Equity Through Payment and Delivery Reform

E Health Empowerment Zones

F Equitable Health Care for All

G Investing in Equity

H Miscellaneous

I Territories Health Equity

1 Medicare

A Part A

B Part B

C Medicare Advantage (Part C)

D Part D

2 Miscellaneous

V Improving health outcomes for women, gender-diverse people, children, and families

A Underserved communities

B Pregnancy screening

C Pregnancy-Related care

D Federal agency coordination on maternal health

E Reproductive and Sexual Health

F Children’s Health

G Elder Care

H Miscellaneous provisions

VI Mental health and substance use disorders

A Access to care and funding streams

B Interprofessional care

C Workforce development

D Children’s mental health

E Community-Based care

F Reports

G Miscellaneous provisions

VII Addressing high-impact minority diseases

A Cancer

B Viral hepatitis and liver cancer control and prevention

C Acquired bone marrow failure diseases

D Cardiovascular disease, chronic disease, obesity, and other disease issues

E HIV/AIDS

F Diabetes

G Lung disease

H Tuberculosis

I Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases

J Sleep and circadian rhythm disorders

K Kidney disease research, surveillance, prevention, and treatment

Sec. 7901A–3. Increasing kidney transplants in minority populations

(a) In general. The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall expand, intensify, and support ongoing research and other activities with respect to kidney transplants in minority populations.

(b) CMS data collection and reporting. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shall collect and report annual data on dialysis facility and nephrologist performance on transplant referral, with an emphasis on data relating to patients of color.

(c) OPTN data collection and reporting. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network shall collect and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients shall report annual data, broken down by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, on individual transplant center performance as it relates to patients referred, evaluated, waitlisted, and successfully transplanted.

(d) Transplant center data. Each organ transplant center shall report on the percent of appropriate waitlisted patients (including socioeconomic and demographic data) giving and receiving annual informed consent for offers for suboptimal kidneys (such as kidneys with a kidney donor profile index of greater than 85 percent or kidney age 50 with diabetes, or age greater than 60).

(e) Organ procurement organization data. Each organ procurement organization shall report annual data on referrals, refusals (patient or doctor), and acceptance of organs by hospital, ZIP Code, race, ethnicity, and age strata except as prohibited by need for confidentiality.

(f) Data transparency for patients. Each organ transplant center shall provide to each patient of such center, on an annual basis—

(1) the number of times an organ was offered to the patient, declined, and transplanted into another patient from organs within a 500-mile radius; and

(2) the number of times an organ was offered to and declined for the patient from a low-risk donor which was subsequently transplanted into another patient.

(g) Improved transplantation education. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shall certify a nonbiased, third-party organization to accredit organ transplant education.

(h) Research. Research under subsection (a) shall include investigation into—

(1) the causes of lower rates of kidney transplants in minority populations, including socioeconomic, geographic, clinical, environmental, genetic, and other factors that may contribute to lower rates of kidney transplants in minority populations; and

(2) possible interventions to increase kidney transplants.

(i) Report; comprehensive plan

(1) In general. The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall—

(A) prepare and submit to the Congress, not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this section, a report on Federal research and public health activities with respect to kidney transplants as a treatment for end-stage renal disease in minority populations; and

(B) develop and submit to the Congress, not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, an effective and comprehensive Federal plan (including all appropriate Federal health programs) to increase the number of kidney transplants in minority populations.

(2) Contents. The report under paragraph (1)(A) shall at a minimum address each of the following:

(A) Research on kidney transplants in minority populations, including such research on financial, insurance coverage, genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors.

(B) Surveillance and data collection on kidney transplants in minority populations, including with respect to—

(i) efforts to increase kidney transplants among Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander subgroups with end-stage renal disease; and

(ii) efforts to increase kidney transplants in the American Indian population.

(C) Community-based efforts to increase kidney transplants targeting minority populations, including—

(i) the evidence base for such increases;

(ii) the cultural appropriateness of such increases; and

(iii) efforts to educate the public on kidney transplants.

(D) Education and training programs for health professionals (including community health workers) on the kidney transplants that are supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration, including such programs supported by the Bureau of Health Workforce, the Bureau of Primary Health Care, and the Health Systems Bureau.

L Diversity in clinical trials

M Additional provisions addressing high-impact minority diseases

N Health Equity and Rare Disease Act

O Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention

P New Era of Preventing End-Stage Kidney Disease

VIII Health Information Technology

A Reducing Health Disparities Through Health IT

B Modifications To Achieve Parity in Existing Programs

C Additional Research and Studies

D Closing Gaps in Funding To Adopt Certified EHRs

E Expanding Access to Telehealth Services

IX Accountability and Evaluation

X Addressing Social Determinants and Improving Environmental Justice

A In General

B Gun Violence

C Nutrition for women, children, families

1 Senior hunger prevention

2 Closing the meal gap

D Universal school meals

1 School breakfast program

2 School lunch program

3 Elementary and secondary education data

4 Amendments to other programs and laws

XI Protections to combat regulatory harm to health equity