Renowned Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump Partners with Healthcare Equity & Organ Transplantation Ambassador Al B. Sure! to Promote Equal Access to Care

Sure! Relentlessly Seeks Coverage of Life-Saving Blood Testing for All Transplant Patients

Houston, TX – February 14, 2024 -- Music legend and Executive Chairman of The Health Equity in Transplantation Coalition (HEiTC) Al B. Sure! has joined forces with renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump and business partner Jarret Prussin to further promote broader access to non-invasive blood testing that accurately detects early rejection in an organ transplant patient’s body that begins to reject the organ.

Sure!’s life was divinely saved by a brilliant Black woman, Constance M. Mobley M.D. PhD, and Dr. Mark Hobeika MD, who performed his liver transplant at Houston Methodist Hospital.

Sure! and HEiTC co-founder Rachel Noerdlinger, Equity Partner Actum LLC, sought Crump’s advocacy help to restore coverage of this life-saving test, which Medicare ceased to cover as of March 2023. Crump, who has been called “Black America’s Attorney General,” has been a powerful force in correcting healthcare injustices and closing healthcare equity gaps.

The inability to access this vital testing severely jeopardizes the lives of organ transplant patients, leaving many at major risk of death, since care teams are unable to surmise that the transplant patient’s body is rejecting the organ until it’s too late. Once the body goes into rejection, it’s virtually impossible to recover.

“I am blessed to still have breath, be able to make the music that I love dearly and to be able to advocate for this vital cause because I am a successful liver transplant recipient myself. I came as close to losing my life as I could ever imagine,” Sure! said. “My life now is dedicated to demanding equity, inclusion, accountability and Equal Access to Healthcare for us all by raising my voice in ways that can help save the lives of my transplant family across the nation.”

“Al B! and I have a lot of work to do to make Sure! others have access to the kind of healthcare that saved his own life,” Crump said. “Black and Brown people have to disproportionately rely on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Their fates depend on this important advocacy.”

Sure! will be represented in future business negotiations by Prussin -- successful entrepreneur, financier, and business partner in Ben Crump Law. Prussin himself benefitted from a lifesaving bone marrow transplant while undergoing treatment for cancer. “This is very personal for me – I understand from firsthand experience what organ transplant patients go through – before, during, and after a transplant,” Prussin said. “It’s a long and anxious road. No one should be denied a simple test that can save their life.”

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