Advocating for Fair, Full Access to
Organ Transplants and Healthcare
The Health Equity in Transplantation Coalition (HEiTC) is a non-partisan advocacy organization focused on addressing the organ transplant crisis to help thousands of Americans who are in need of, but cannot access, an organ transplant or quality post-procedure care.
ABOUT US
HEiTC was established in November 2023 by global recording artist Al B. Sure!, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Rachel Noerdlinger to address the critical challenges that more than 100,000 Americans face every day as they wait for an organ transplant and to ensure they then have access to innovative tools to protect their gift of life. Our mission transcends partisan politics: remove barriers to organ transplants and post-procedure care to improve health outcomes.
A main focus of HEiTC has been ensuring life-saving blood tests used to monitor for signs of organ rejection remain covered by Medicare for kidney transplant patients – who represent the large majority of the organ waiting list. We are additionally committed to addressing the many systemic barriers that currently confront Americans in need of organ transplants, and ensuring equitable post-transplant care for medically underserved populations and those in rural areas. We work in partnership with patients, providers, and other stakeholders including elected officials and key decision makers to find common-sense solutions designed to improve access to transplants and post-procedural outcomes.
OUR LEADERSHIP
Al B. Sure!
Executive Chairman
Rev. Al Sharpton
Senior Advisor
Rachel Noerdlinger
Co-Founder
Jennifer Jones Austin
Senior Advisor
KNOW
THE
FACTS
WHERE THINGS STAND
HEiTC was initially formed to address the controversial March 2023 decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to rollback Medicare coverage for life-saving blood tests capable of catching early signs of an organ rejection. For years, the medical community considered these tests essential for surveillance of transplanted organs, which require constant vigilance to ensure a patient does not go into rejection. That all changed when CMS, on the recommendation of a private contractor tasked with overseeing Medicare policy, said these tests would only be covered if a provider ordered a biopsy, which are painful, time consuming, and often requested when it’s too late to stop a rejection.
Our coalition — under the leadership of Al B. Sure!, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Rachel Noerdlinger — jumped into action to raise this issue to the White House, CMS, and key lawmakers on Capitol Hill. In August 2024, CMS reversed the decision and canceled a local coverage determination (LCD) process that would have made the rollback permanent. While this was a major sigh of relief for the transplant community, CMS has launched a new LCD process that will decide whether these essential blood tests will be considered for regular surveillance use.
In addition to advocating for permanent coverage on these tests, HEiTC is committed to lifting myriad barriers that many Americans face around transplantation. Black and Latino/Hispanic Americans are historically at greater risk of organ failure — only to struggle to access a transplant. Rural Americans face their own barriers as travel times to transplant centers and economic factors block them from accessing adequate medical care.
We're in the red zone but not the end zone.
