CD281: Private Policing of the Organ Transplant Network

The system for coordinating organ donations and transplants in the United States is broken, according to experts who have testified over the course of many years to Congress. In this episode, hear their testimony about what is wrong with the current system and then we’ll examine the bill that aims to fix the problems.

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View the show notes on our website at https://congressionaldish.com/cd281-private-policing-of-the-organ-transplant-network

Background Sources

“UNOS Hearing Confidential Memo [Jen Briney’s Highlighted Version].” August 3, 2022. Senate Finance Committee.

“70 deaths, many wasted organs are blamed on transplant system errors.” Lenny Bernstein and Todd C. Frankel. August 3, 2022. The Washington Post.

“Letter from Chuck Grassley et al. to Brian Shepard.” February 10, 2020. Senate Finance Committee.

The Bill

H.R.2544: Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act

Audio Sources

The Cost of Inaction and the Urgent Need to Reform the U.S. Transplant System

July 20, 2023
Senate Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on Health Care

Watch on C-SPAN

Witnesses:

LaQuayia Goldring, Patient

Molly J. McCarthy, Vice Chair & Region 6 Patient Affairs Committee Representative, Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN)

Matthew Wadsworth, President and CEO, Life Connection of Ohio

Raymond J. Lynch, MD, MS, FACS, Professor of Surgery and Director of Transplantation Quality and Outcomes, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Donna R. Cryer, JD, Founder and CEO, Global Liver Institute

Clips

30:40 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): HRSA, the Health Resources Agency, is on track to begin the contract process this fall and we're just going to be working here to complement their effort.

36:30 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): In 2005, I started the investigation of the deadly failures of UNOS, the monopoly tasked with managing the US organ donation system. Since then, more than 200,000 patients have needlessly died on the organ waiting list. There's a reason that I call UNOS the fox guarding the hen house. For nearly two decades, UNOS has concealed serious problems [at] the nation's organ procurement organizations, known as OPOs, instead of working to uncover and correct the corruption. This human tragedy is even more horrific because many of these deaths were preventable. They were the result of [a] corrupt, unaccountable monopoly that operates more like a cartel than a public servant.

44:45 LaQuayia Goldring: As a toddler, at the age of three, I was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer that took the function of my left kidney. And when I was 17, I went back into complete renal failure and I received a first kidney transplant at that time. Unfortunately, in 2015, I went back into kidney failure. And at that time, I wasn't ready for another transplant, but I didn't have a choice but to go back on dialysis. I've