A SERVICE
OF 
Groups React to
Legislative Maneuvers on Allocation Issues
CITY · April 15, 2000· by TNN Medical Reporter
Virginia Baskerville
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The recent maneuvers in Congress to finally decide how
organs should be allocated in the United States prompted a flurry of reactions
by a number of transplant groups.
In early April, the House passed a bill that would give the decision-making
authority back to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), and a week later
a Senate committee agreed to a measure that would create an oversight board to
resolve disputes between the government and UNOS (see "Allocation
Wrangling Continues," above).
Reactions to the House bill (HR2418) included the following:
- UNOS: "The passage of this legislation goes a long way toward
resolving the difficult and controversial issues surrounding organ
transplantation" (www.unos.org).
- Patient Access of Transplantation Coalition: "We are pleased that
Congress has reaffirmed the importance of keeping medical decisions in the
hands of medical personnel….We all have the best interests of patients at
heart, but the continuing controversy threatens public confidence in the system
and hinders efforts to increase organ donation," said Dr. Steve Bynon,
director of liver transplantation at the university of Alabama at Birmingham.
The PAT Coalition is composed of 29 transplant programs in 22 states.
- Coalition of Major Transplant Centers: "With this bill, the House
hopefully has made it clear to [Department of Health and Human Services]
Secretary Shalala that it does not want the fate of the 70,000 patients waiting
for transplants to be subject to political pressures and soundbite
medicine," said Anthony M. D'Alessandro, MD. The coalition represents
about 20 major transplant centers (www.majortransplantcenters.com).
- American Society of Transplant Surgeons: "The passage of this bill
sends a strong signal that Congress wants transplant policy decisions to be
made by medical professionals in the private sector and not by the political
appointees of the Department of Health and Human Services," said ASTS
president Ronald W. Busuttil, MD, PhD (www.a-s-t.org).
- Campaign for Transplant Patient Fairness: "…those who voted in
favor of the bill are endorsing an unprecedented attempt to give a federal
contractor control of life and death health care policy decisions as well as
control of federal dollars with practically no oversight by the
government….They are supporting a system that will ensure countless
numbers of patients to needlessly die."
Reactions to the Senate bill (S2366):
- UNOS: "The hard work of both Senators Frist and Kennedy in developing
consensus legislation is an enormous accomplishment and moves this important
issue another step closer to final resolution."
- Coalition of Major Transplant Centers: "We believe the bill…has a
number of positive aspects. But it clearly goes too far in shifting authority
over transplant policy from the medical community to the Secretary of Health
and Human Services.
- Campaign for Transplant Patient Fairness: "The Campaign is also
pleased that the compromise reached today does seek to reduce the disparities
in geographic area or region of residence; and, while not what we had hoped, it
does provide a measure of Secretarial authority over the Organ Procurement and
Transplantation Network.
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