Biden-era regulation on the chopping block as Trump-aligned legal group warns of 'DEI lens'

Biden-era kidney transplant rule faces repeal petition from Trump-aligned lawfare group that claims the rule pushes discriminatory DEI policies and is part of "unlawful equity agenda."

The Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) Model in question scores selected hospitals, which are required to participate, across three domains as it relates to kidney organ transplantation: achievement, efficiency, and quality. Based on the scores, hospitals will either get money for their efforts, owe money back to the federal government for not meeting expectations, or neither receive nor owe anything.  

Rather than an explicit score adjustment, the rule's equity agenda was embedded more subtly through a "voluntary" health equity plan that mandatory participating hospitals are encouraged to complete. The plan pushes hospitals to identify "health disparities" and identify "equity goals to monitor and evaluate progress in reducing targeted health disparities," which will be measured by "one or more quantitative metrics that the IOTA participant uses to measure the reductions in target health disparities arising from the health equity plan interventions."