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Texas · Through 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025

Tex. Health and Safety Code § 161.474: DISCRIMINATION ON BASIS OF VACCINATION STATUS PROHIBITED.

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Where this section sits in the code
  1. HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE
  2. TITLE 2. HEALTH
  3. SUBTITLE H. PUBLIC HEALTH PROVISIONS
  4. CHAPTER 161. PUBLIC HEALTH PROVISIONS
  5. SUBCHAPTER S. ALLOCATION OF KIDNEYS AND OTHER ORGANS AVAILABLE FOR TRANSPLANT

(a) A health care provider may not, solely on the basis of an individual's vaccination status:

(1) determine an individual is ineligible to receive an organ transplant;

(2) deny medical or other services related to an organ transplant, including evaluation, surgery, counseling, and postoperative treatment;

(3) refuse to refer the individual to a transplant center or other related specialist for evaluation or receipt of an organ transplant; or

(4) refuse to place the individual on an organ transplant waiting list or place the individual at a position lower in priority on the list than the position the individual would have been placed if not for the individual's vaccination status.

(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), a health care provider may consider an individual's vaccination status when making a treatment recommendation or decision solely to the extent that a physician, following an individualized evaluation of the potential transplant recipient, determines the vaccination status is medically significant to the organ transplant. This section does not require a referral or recommendation for, or the performance of, a medically inappropriate organ transplant.

(c) This section applies to each stage of the organ transplant process.

(d) A person may not take an adverse action or impose a penalty of any kind against a health care provider based solely on the fact that the health care provider complied with Subsection (a).

(e) A physician who in good faith makes a determination that an individual's vaccination status is medically significant to the organ transplant, as described by Subsection (b), does not violate this section.

(f) A health care provider may:

(1) develop alternative risk mitigation strategies, including antibody testing, prophylactic treatments, and antiviral therapy, in lieu of requiring a vaccination; and

(2) inform patients of the risks and benefits of receiving a vaccination.

Added by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 450 (H.B. 4076), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2025.

Collected 2026-08-27T01:47:17Z. Source file · JSON

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