Online Publication Date:
12 Dec 2019
USA Today Opinion Piece in Line with ASN stance on Organ Procurement Reform

In an opinion piece published this week in USAToday.com, contributors Andy Slavitt and Adam Brandon argue that many patients waiting for organ transplants pass away waiting, not due to lack of donors, but because of a “government-run monopoly”. They are referring to organ procurement organizations (OPOs), which are regional organizations in the US “charged with showing up at the hospital and working with the surviving family to coordinate a potential donation”. Research has found that OPOs are inefficient causing “28,000 organs to go uncovered from potential donors each year” in the US.
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In an opinion piece published this week in USAToday.com, contributors Andy Slavitt and Adam Brandon argue that many patients waiting for organ transplants pass away waiting, not due to lack of donors, but because of a “government-run monopoly”. They are referring to organ procurement organizations (OPOs), which are regional organizations in the US “charged with showing up at the hospital and working with the surviving family to coordinate a potential donation”. Research has found that OPOs are inefficient causing “28,000 organs to go uncovered from potential donors each year” in the US.

Support for reform of OPOs is strongly bipartisan. Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., “have introduced a bill to apply much-needed accountability metrics to OPOs… and 74 members of Congress recently wrote a letter in support of new OPO metrics.” The Trump administration’s Advancing American Kidney Health (AAKH) initiative directs the secretary of Health and Human Services to issue a rule to drive more transparency for OPOs, “which was met with broad support – including from senior members of the Obama administration.”

The cost saving from more efficient OPOs or a organ procurement system as a whole is immense. “Taxpayers could save up to $12 billion in just five years through avoided dialysis costs.”

The support for reform of organ procurement and increase organ donation is in line with the American Society of Nephrology’s position to better serve nephrologists and their patients. The trials of dialysis and waiting for kidney transplantation could be alleviated by a more efficient procurement system – thereby saving money and countless lives.

For more information, please see the USA Today opinion piece .

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