Hawkeye Reporter

WASHINGTON – Building on a nearly two decades-long push to conduct oversight of the U.S. organ procurement and transplant system, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, spoke with administration officials during a bipartisan Senate Finance roundtable regarding modernization of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). 

In an opening statement, Grassley urged Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Administrator Carole Johnson, along with officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), to move forward with plans to reform the OPTN. He also condemned the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) – which has held OPTN’s exclusive contract – for opposing the Wyden-Grassley bill to codify HRSA’s reforms: 

“…UNOS acts more like the fox guarding the hen house instead of a trustworthy and independent oversight body that holds its members accountable. It’s no surprise that UNOS is spreading misinformation about our bipartisan bill, S. 1668, to maintain the status quo and preserve its monopoly.  

“UNOS is pushing poison pill amendments and dictating anticompetitive contract restrictions to try and maintain its chokehold on the system. [It] has deployed these same tactics for the last 40 years. Patients and taxpayers have paid the price.

…

“We must work together to ensure S. 1668 becomes law. Patient lives are at stake.”

In 2020, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley opened a bipartisan investigation probing the U.S. organ transplant system. In March of this year, HRSA announced plans to break up the exclusive contract for OPTN’s functions so that patients can be served by the best in each field, including areas such as technology and logistics. UNOS has had complete control over the U.S. organ system since 1986, despite myriad instances of deadly mismanagement and abuse. Upon announcing this change, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra credited the modernization effort as “a result of the work that [Grassley has] done over the years.”

Following the meeting, Grassley joined bipartisan Finance Committee colleagues in a joint statement acknowledging the progress. Grassley’s opening statement as prepared is below. 

Download photo HERE.

Opening Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Roundtable on Improving the U.S. Organ Transplant System

Hosted by the Senate Finance Committee

July 11, 2023

Thank you, Chairman Wyden.

We’ll talk about long-overdue efforts to modernize and improve the nation’s organ transplant system, the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.  

I want to thank my colleagues for their work on this important issue and for cosponsoring our bipartisan legislation, S. 1668, Securing the U.S Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Our bill will save tens of thousands of lives by breaking up the corrupt and conflicted monopoly that’s had a chokehold on the system for nearly 40 years. 

In 1984, Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act.

In 1986, the federal government contracted with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) to oversee the transplantation network, including organ procurement organizations (OPOs).

For almost two decades, Congress, government watchdogs, and the media have questioned UNOS’s ability to carry out its responsibilities. 

For UNOS and OPOs, there’s been ongoing reports of fraud, waste, and abuse, criminality, deadly patient safety issues, failure to recover organs, and retaliation against whistleblowers, including patient advocates and caregivers. 

I’ve written about these issues since 2005.  

In August of 2022, the Senate Finance Committee issued a bipartisan report that detailed vast disparities in how OPOs serve their communities.  

Based on the findings in the report, the organ network has worse outcomes for people of color and rural residents.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as many as 24 of 57 OPOs are failing outcome and performance metrics.  

Our bipartisan investigation, which I started when I was chairman of this committee, also uncovered that some OPOs are gaming their performance measures by harvesting pancreases from deceased donors and falsely calling it research to exploit a loophole in a CMS rule. 

In turn, those inflated performance metrics will assist OPOs in maintaining their contracts with CMS for organ donation.

We’ve also received allegations about OPOs abusing private jets by allowing executives to use them for personal travel and perks, then billing the taxpayer for the flights. 

In February of this year, the UNOS technology system for matching organs was down for almost an hour.

Simply put, this is unacceptable.  

As I said in 2006, UNOS acts more like the fox guarding the hen house instead of a trustworthy and independent oversight body that holds its members accountable.

It’s no surprise that UNOS is spreading misinformation about our bipartisan bill, S. 1668, to maintain the status quo and preserve its monopoly.  

UNOS is pushing poison pill amendments and dictating anticompetitive contract restrictions to try and maintain its chokehold on the system. 

UNOS has deployed these same tactics for the last 40 years.

Patients and taxpayers have paid the price.

In 1999, Forbes called UNOS a “cartel” to describe how it uses “a heavy-handed mix of litigation, lobbying, and bullying… to solidify its position as the federal contractor in charge of deciding which people get new kidneys, livers, or hearts.”

Nothing has changed since then. 

We must work together to ensure S. 1668 becomes law. 

Patient lives are at stake. 

Thank you.   

Original source can be found here.