§ 77.004.Blood Bank: Compensation of Seller

A payment restriction with the chapter's immunity attached as the sanction.

The section applies only to a blood bank licensed by the Division of Biological Standards of the National Institute of Health or by the American Association of Blood Banks.

A blood bank may not pay cash for blood, and may not pay a blood seller by check unless the check is sent by United States mail after the 15th day following the day the blood is taken.

The delay is a screening mechanism, not an accounting rule. A person who needs money today and knows their blood may be unsuitable has a reason to conceal it. Removing immediate payment removes that incentive, and the fifteen-day wait means the money is not connected to the moment of donation at all.

The concern was documented and serious: paid donation from populations with elevated infection rates was a known route for transfusion-transmitted disease.

Subsection (c) supplies the consequence. If a blood bank violates the rule and the blood contains harmful substances, the bank is not entitled to the immunity established by this chapter. The blood bank has the burden of establishing that the blood was not purchased in violation.

The burden allocation is the sharp end. Once harmful blood is shown, the bank must prove its own compliance — a reversal that makes the payment records the bank's problem to produce.