Hawkeye Reporter

WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and committee members Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) today issued a statement following a Senate Finance roundtable with Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Administrator Carole Johnson and officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The meeting focused on efforts to reform and modernize the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).

"Bipartisan senators attended a meeting with administration officials to discuss efforts to reform the OPTN on behalf of the thousands of American families waiting on an organ transplant. This meeting marks an important step forward as we partner with the administration and continue our efforts to improve the transplant system,” the senators said. “Members pressed CMS and HRSA officials for a more coordinated, transparent, equitable and accountable system with robust enforcement. Administration officials also discussed the progress on implementing an OPTN modernization plan and offered support for the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act, which we will continue to push to pass before the contract process begins this fall. The cost of inaction is unacceptable, as 17 people die every day waiting for a life-saving transplant."

The senators in May introduced the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act, which builds on the initiative HRSA announced in March to break up the monopoly contract that has run the OPTN since 1986. A companion bill has been reported by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Original source can be found here.