U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) recently voiced their concern to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding a national policy change that could cause extended waits for Americans seeking liver transplants.
Changes made on Dec. 3 by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) to the national liver distribution policy specifically would impact Midwestern and Southern transplant hospitals, including those in their home states, the senators said.
“This decision disregards expert opinion, overturns the current policy adopted in December 2017, and calls into question the OPTN process and whether it can fairly determine a policy for distributing livers nationwide,” Sens. Blunt and Moran wrote in a Dec. 11 letter sent to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.
The lawmakers called the OPTN decision “extremely concerning” because it ignores last year’s recommendation from the Liver and Intestine Committee, which is comprised of a panel of transplant experts charged with considering the medical, scientific and ethical aspects related to liver procurement, according to their letter.
The senators said the OPTN decision “undermines the entire process and calls into question why the Department has ceded control” of the process, according to their letter.
They wrote that the Liver and Intestine Committee’s recommendations should be adhered to “unless there are specific, vetted, and justifiable reasons to do otherwise.” The senators added that the OPTN decision to overturn the committee’s decision doesn’t meet that standard.
Sens. Moran and Blunt in October also discussed the issue with Dr. George Sigounas, administrator of the HHS Health Resources and Services Administration.
“We raised concerns about [HHS] interceding after last year’s decision simply because a lawsuit was filed,” they wrote Secretary Azar, referring to a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year against HHS, Azar, OPTN and the United Network for Organ Sharing by a group of patients waiting for liver transplants.
The lawsuit, filed on July 13 in a Manhattan federal court, charges that the current HHS region-based liver allocation policy is “illegal and inequitable” and results in the deaths of too many people who are on organ waiting lists.
In their letter, the senators said that the HHS decision to intercede in the OPTN decision because of this pending lawsuit “makes us question whether the Department has faith in the outcome of OPTN decisions. It also makes us expect that the Department will weigh in should a lawsuit be filed now that a new OPTN decision was reached.”
The senators asked Azar to respond soon “regarding our concerns and the change in liver distribution policy.”