Sometimes, when you least expect it, lawmakers in Washington do something that isn’t terrible.
The House and Senate both recently gave unanimous approval to a bill designed to save thousands of lives of people on the organ transplant waiting list.
The Securing the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act will break up what critics say is a monopoly on the network which has been operated by one entity for nearly four decades. All the bill needs now is President Biden’s signature to make it law.
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network or OPTN is a digital system that matches patients with organs. The nonprofit organization United Network for Organ Sharing or UNOS has operated the network since its creation in 1984.
Lawmakers have blamed UNOS for a lack of oversight and technical expertise that has led to long wait times and thousands of deaths of people waiting for a transplant. There were over 100,000 people currently on the organ transplant waitlist, according to data from the OPTN.
“Breaking up this monopoly will increase competition, save lives and improve the system. Glad to see our legislation pass Congress and look forward to it becoming law,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy of Lousiana, a co-sponsor of the measure and ranking Republican of the Senate Health, committee.
The measure will create a competitive contracting process to expand the pool of organizations involved in the operation of the organ transplantation network and give the Health Resources and Services Administration the authority to improve the management of the system.
HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson lauded the efforts by lawmakers in both chambers and urged for President Biden to sign the measure into law.
“Individuals on the waitlist, organ donors, and their families deserve an OPTN governed by an independent, representative board and supported by best-in-class technology, processes, policy, and people,” Mrs. Johnson said.
The bill follows a push by the Biden administration to overhaul the network earlier this year.
That overhaul included developing data dashboards with wait times and lists of organ procurement organizations, increasing competition related to running the network and a bigger budget. Mr. Biden requested $67 million this year to double the budget of the organ transplant network.
Last year, the Senate Finance Committee investigated the transplant network.
Documents from the committee investigation indicated that around 6,000 people die each year on the waitlist for an organ transplant under UNOS’ oversight. The investigation also found that a lack of oversight by UNOS has caused “avoidable failures in organ procurement and transplantation resulting in risks to patient safety.”
Those failures include transportation procedure errors that have led to organs being lost or destroyed in transit. UNOS’ contract to oversee the network is set to expire later this year.
A spokesperson for the organization told the Washington Times that UNOS was in support of the legislation because the competitive contracting process would advance efforts to save as many lives as possible.
The spokesperson added that UNOS is ready to work with the HRSA and other organizations to better the transplant network.
“No organization knows the incredibly complex system and the transplant community as well as UNOS, and we look forward to demonstrating how our expertise should remain an integral part of the system,” the spokesperson said.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washigtontimes.com.