If you have three minutes, please help us send a message to your federal legislators about the unreasonable measurements Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) want to impose on organ procurement organizations such as ours.
In July 2019, the President’s Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health (Executive Order) was released. The Executive Order encompasses process improvements in transplant centers, dialysis centers, and organ procurement organizations. HonorBridge supports the intent of the order; however, we have three major concerns with the CMS proposed rule’s metrics which are based on several arbitrary and unreasonable factors that are outside the control of organ procurement organizations.
There is a special interest group driving these unreasonable factors that if unchanged would be devastating to the current North Carolina donation and transplant system. In fact:
- There would be immediate destabilization of the organ donation and recovery process.
- The destabilization will cause fewer organ donors resulting in more deaths of North Carolina men, women, and children waiting for organ transplants.
- The public trust in the donation system that has taken decades to establish would be shattered.
- Strong relationships with eye banks, tissue banks, over 100 donor hospitals, five transplant centers, 125 DMVs, approximately 500 funeral homes, and hundreds of North Carolina donor families will cease to exist.
- Up to 75% of the existing 58 organ procurement organizations, including HonorBridge could close.
The United States has the strongest transplantation system in the world. Organ donation and transplantation has increased by nearly 50% across the country over the past seven years. Despite the near shutdown of transplantation in certain parts of the country due to COVID, 2020 is shaping up to be another record-setting year with over 12,000 organ donors and 32,000 organs transplanted across the nation. During this time, HonorBridge experienced record-setting years for saving lives too.
This increase in donation and life-saving transplantation is the result of many things: new technologies, increases in the types of deaths that result in donation, process improvements, public trust in the system, and more incredible individuals and family members who say yes to the decision to donate.
Please join our campaign to encourage the Department of Health and Human Services to address our concerns with the proposed CMS metrics governing organ procurement organizations.
Here Is How to Take Action:
Email your Member of Congress to communicate your concerns with the proposed metrics and request they contact Secretary Azar at the Department of Health and Human Services about these concerns. This can be easily done by clicking the button below to access an interactive form to determine your federal representatives and customize the email to share your connection with donation and the importance of this call to action.
Should you have any questions, please contact Chuck Heald, Director, Marketing & Communications.
