The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has launched a bipartisan investigation into the U.S. organ transplant system – the latest scrutiny of the system following reports from the Senate and whistleblowers alleging its failures and mismanagement.
The move by the committee aims to “ensure successful implementation” of a bipartisan bill that was signed into law by President Joe Biden last September. The law was aimed at breaking up the monopoly system that allowed a private nonprofit — the United Network for Organ Sharing — to be the sole contractor managing the country’s Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) for over 40 years.
As part of the investigation, the committee sent letters — obtained first by ABC News — seeking a wide range of documents from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which is responsible for awarding the contract to manage the organ transplant system.
“The Committee writes to request information related to the United Network for Organ Sharing’s (UNOS) role as the sole contractor for the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network,” the letter to UNOS states.
The letter added, “According to HRSA statistics, approximately 17 Americans die every day waiting for an organ transplant, and a disproportionate number of them are patients of color and/or rural Americans.”
The nation’s organ transplant system has received scrutiny in recent years amid government reports, congressional investigations and whistleblower accounts that revealed outdated and poor technological infrastructure, mismanagement from organ procurement organizations under UNOS, and errors that included allowing organs to go unused.
