WASHINGTON
– U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, and U.S. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and
Related Agencies, led 20 of their Senate colleagues in sending a bipartisanletter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) demanding
answers to a recent change in the national liver distribution policy made
by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). Under the new
policy, transplant hospitals in areas with rural and low-income populations
could see patients waiting longer for a liver match and losing livers donated
in their state.
“The
changes made on December 3, 2018, by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation
Network (OPTN) to the national liver distribution policy could adversely impact
many Americans seeking liver transplants,” the senators wrote. “…the Department
only asked the OPTN to address the concerns specifically laid out in the suit –
the justification for OPTN geographic regions. We are concerned that this
intervention tipped the scales toward one outcome, and did not set up a process
to address all the issues and factors that should be considered for fair liver
distribution.”
In
the letter, the senators note that, by failing to account for regional
variations in liver donation rates and disparities in the performance of organ
procurement organizations (OPOs), the OPTN’s policy change appears to reward
locations that underutilize existing organ resources and have historically had
troubled OPOs.
The
senators also challenge the process by which the OPTN decision was made,
writing, “The December 3rd policy change both conflicts with the 2017 OPTN
decision and ignores the recommendation of the Liver and Intestine
Transplantation Committee, whose members include some of the nation’s leading
transplant experts.”
The
letter seeks answers on the issues raised above, as well as specific information
on the impact OPTN’s policy change will have on Midwestern and Southern states,
and low-income patients, and the effects the new policy will have on transplant
costs and the viability of livers in transport.
In
addition to Grassley and Blunt, the letter was signed by Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby
(Ala.), and Senators Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), John Boozman (Ark.), Tom Cotton
(Ark.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Lindsay Graham (S.C.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Cindy
Hyde-Smith (Miss.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Doug Jones (Ala.), James Lankford
(Okla.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Pat Roberts
(Kan.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Roger Wicker (Miss.) and
Todd Young (Ind.).
Click here to read the full letter.