U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman David Schweikert (R-AZ) demanded numerous documents from the Montefiore Medical Center in New York and the University of Chicago Medical Center about organ transplants performed on wealthy foreign nationals.
The demand came following a report in the New York Times alleging both institutions prioritized wealthy foreign nationals over American patients for organ transplants, entered contracts with foreign governments, and internationally advertised organ transplant services, emphasizing short wait times and concierge services.
“At the hospitals that have provided the most transplants in recent years, nearly all of the international recipients came from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar,” the New York Times article stated, adding “U.S. hospitals have advertised in Arabic-language magazines, hosted conferences in the Middle East and hired consultants there.”
In letters to Montefiore Medical Center and the University of Chicago Medical Center, Smith and Schweikert wrote that as organizations claiming tax-exempt status as 501(c)(3)s they are bound to provide “charitable care and benefits” to their communities and that “[c]ontracting with a foreign government to provide these crucial services to foreign nationals over American citizens” calls into question the benefits they are providing to their communities.
The letters from Smith and Schweikert were sent on January 27, 2026, and asked that the requested materials be turned over by February 10, 2026.
At the time of publication, Health Care News could not find any report that the materials had been turned over.
Fast-Tracked Transplant
Further emphasizing points made in the letters from Smith and Schweikert, Heidi Klessig, M.D., a retired anesthesiologist and author of The Brain Death Fallacy, told Health Care News, “Giving cash-paying foreign nationals precedence over Americans violates these hospitals’ tax-exempt status.”
One such example provided by the New York Times was that of Kayoko Hira, the wife of a Japanese hotel magnate who received a heart transplant at the University of Chicago Medical Center only days after entering the country.
The New York Times described Hira as “a ‘self-pay’ patient” and noted how shortly after her procedure, a charity run by her husband donated money to a nonprofit run by the wife of her surgeon.
Disparities in Care
Cases of “wealthy foreigners” receiving “red-carpet treatment” at U.S. hospitals are unacceptable, says Klessig, especially when American patients at some of the same hospitals catering to foreign nationals can receive care of a far lower quality.
“In 2024, after a failed neurologic procedure, New York business student Amber Ebanks was refused proper care while her family contested her brain death diagnosis,” said Klessig. “She was neither fed nor washed during the time her family sued in court to get her transferred to another facility. After a month of starvation and neglect, her heart stopped.”
Ebanks was a patient at Montefiore. Klessig described Ebanks’ story in greater detail in a 2024 commentary for Life Site News. “True charitable organizations do not sacrifice the vulnerable to receive payments from the wealthy,” said Klessig.
Organ Procurement Controversies
The controversy over the alleged prioritization of wealthy foreign nationals for organ transplant comes amid increased scrutiny of organ procurement practices in the United States.
In December 2025, an investigation by the Ways and Means Committee into the activities of organ procurement organizations (OPOs), “revealed troubling clinical practices, misuse of taxpayer dollars, and questionable financial practices.”
As previously reported by Health Care News, individuals testifying at a hearing that was part of the investigation described attempts to recover organs from living patients with signs of consciousness or reasonable hope of recovery, as well as instances of organs being harvested for research that was never performed, organs being harvested from deceased prisoners without consent, and a “cancerous liver being transplanted to a patient, leading to her death.”
Additionally, in January 2026, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF), a health reform advocacy group, found a provision in the appropriations bill President Donald Trump signed on February 5, 2026, that gives OPOs greater access to patient medical records.
CCHF president and co-founder Twila Brase, R.N., PHN, previously told Health Care News, “We are uncertain where the impetus of the OPO language came from, however, Senator Grassley and others had this kind of language in other bills.”
HIPAA Facilitates Data Sharing
As for how OPOs can be given this kind of access to patient medical information, Allison Lucas, the public policy director for CCHF, told Health Care News, “Contrary to what most people believe, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) does not protect medical privacy.”
“HIPAA eliminates the need for patient consent for data sharing,” Lucas said. “HIPAA permits a wide range of disclosures of individually identifiable patient data, called protected health information (PHI). HIPAA regulations specifically permit the sharing of information to facilitate organ donation.”
One example of this, said Lucas, is 45 CFR 164.512(h), which “permits hospitals to use or disclose PHI to organ procurement organizations or other similar organizations, to facilitate anatomical donations.”
Another, 42 CFR § 482.45, said Lucas, “requires hospitals to notify organ procurement organizations of patients who have died or whose death is imminent.”
Expanding the Transplant Market
The Congressional inquiry and the provision in a spending bill are the latest signs of an emerging medical market to raise ethical red flags, similar to what we’ve seen in the trans industry, says AnneMarie Schieber, the managing editor of Health Care News.
“Given the global interest in wanting to come to the United States and pay untold sums of money to hospitals and charities to jump in line for an organ may explain why states are so eager to expand medical assisted suicide,” said Schieber. “It offers the potential to harvest more organs. It is only a matter of time, the transplant industry will be pressuring healthy, but fragile people to take their lives so their organs can be taken and given to someone else, someone willing to pay lots of money,” said Schieber.
“As monstrous as this sounds, it will be sold as a noble thing to do. Your despair can save the life of another! I’m glad our legislators in Congress are paying attention to this. Patients need to watch out.”
Daniel Nuccio, Ph.D. ([email protected]) is a spring 2026 College Fix journalism fellow, reporter, and editorial associate for Health Care News.
