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Related sites United Network for Organ Sharing |
Agency, Congress at odds over organ donations
Posted
10-25-99 Washington. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released new rules intended to reduce inequities in the distribution of donor organs last week. But the regulations are only "a step in the right direction," according to a spokesperson for the House Commerce Committee. House members are concerned that increased federal oversight would mean locally donated organs would likely go to patients at larger transplant centers with longer waiting lists. Days earlier, the committee approved a bill that would limit federal oversight of the way organs are allocated. The HHS initially released revised transplant rules in 1998 with the intention of ending the long waiting periods endured by patients in some communities. But the rules were so harshly criticized by the healthcare and transplant communities that Congress imposed a one-year moratorium on implementing them. "We're happy to see that these revised rules take some of our concerns into account," said Bob Spieldenner, a spokesperson for United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit group that runs the nation's transplant system. UNOS was still reviewing the details of the new regulations, which are scheduled for publication next month. A spokesperson for the House Commerce Committee would not rule out the possibility that Congress might extend the moratorium if it decides the new regulations would result in a loss of medical independence. The current controversy comes on the heels of an HHS study showing that the waiting time for liver and heart transplants varies dramatically by geography. For example, only 21 percent of patients at the University of Maryland received liver transplants, compared with 89 percent of those at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City. The newly released rules call for establishing basic criteria to determine which patients get transplants first, expanding organ sharing over as broad a geographic area as is feasible, and releasing data that would allow patients and physicians to more easily identify the most successful transplant programs. HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala would retain the authority to approve or veto any organ distribution plan she deems unfair.
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