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A6 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 18 december 2019

U.S. proposes new rules to increase organ transplants

By LAURAN NEERGAARD dent Donald Trump in July work with Medicare, which hospital calls with a poten- show the entire pool of
AP Medical Writer ordered a revamping of regulates the nonprofits, tial donor at 3 a.m. potential donors each has
WASHINGTON (AP) — The care for kidney disease, to implement the tougher It's hard to tell how well they to draw from — anyone 75
U.S. government is over- including spurring trans- standards. do the job. or younger who dies in a
hauling parts of the nation's plants of kidneys and other The new rules are "an op- They self-report to the gov- hospital of conditions that
transplant system to make organs. The proposals are portunity to drive mean- ernment success rates with- wouldn't automatically
sure organs from the dead preclude donation.
no longer go to waste — For the first time, that would
and to make it easier for allow Medicare to rank
the living to donate. OPO performance.
The rules proposed Tuesday Verma promised yearly
aim to ease an organ short- evaluations, saying any or-
age so severe that more gan agency that didn't do
than 113,000 Americans lin- as well as the top quarter of
ger on the transplant wait- their competitors would be
ing list — and about 20 die pushed to improve.
each day. "This is a great first step,"
Part of the reason: An As- said Greg Segal of the ad-
sociated Press analysis re- vocacy group Organize,
cently found some of the whose father waited five
groups that collect organs years for a heart transplant.
at death secure donors "Now the government
at half the rate of others, needs to implement the
missed opportunities that rule as strongly and quickly
could have saved lives. as possible."
But the government cur- Verma estimated the
rently has little way to di- change could spark anoth-
rectly compare organ er 5,000 transplants a year.
collection agencies and A 2017 study by University
force poor performers to of Pennsylvania research-
improve. ers had estimated that a
"No life-saving organ should better-functioning system
go to waste," Medicare could yield as many as
chief Seema Verma said 28,000 additional organs.
in announcing stricter stan- Deceased donors make
dards to hold those agen- up most transplants but
cies more accountable. In this July 10, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during an event on kidney health people lucky enough to
At the same time, the ad- at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington. receive a kidney or part of
ministration also aims to Associated Press a liver from a living donor
spur more living donors by not only cut their wait, but
allowing them to be reim- those organs tend to sur-
bursed for lost wages and open for public comment ingful changes that will out any way to tell how vive longer.
child care or elder care for 60 days. increase the availability of many potential donations Yet fewer than 7,000 of
expenses incurred during Transplant advocates organs for transplant and were left behind, or why. the 36,529 transplants per-
their hospitalization and re- praised the move. save more lives," Kelly Ra- And current rules give little formed last year were from
covery. "Patients are dying, and num, CEO of Louisiana's incentive for retrieving less- living donors.
"When an American wishes they deserve better," Jen- OPO and president of the than-perfect organs, such Currently, the transplant
to become a living donor, nifer Erickson, a former association, said in a state- as those from older donors. recipient's insurance pays
we don't believe their fi- Obama administration ment. "For countless patients, an the donor's medical bills.
nancial situation should staffer who worked on Today, the country is divid- imperfect organ is better But donors are out of work
limit their generosity," said transplant policy, said of ed into 58 zones, each as- than no organ at all," Ver- for weeks recuperating
Health and Human Ser- the crackdown on "organ signed an OPO to essential- ma said. and not all employers allow
vices Secretary Alex Azar, procurement organiza- ly be a matchmaker — rap- Under the proposal, Medi- some form of paid time off.
whose father received a tions," or OPOs. idly collecting organs from care will calculate each The new proposal aims to
kidney transplant from a liv- And the association that willing donors at death and OPO's donation and trans- ease that economic hur-
ing donor. represents those organ col- getting them to the right plantation rates using fed- dle; still to be determined
The rules come after Presi- lection groups pledged to transplant center, even if a eral death records that is exactly who will qualify.q