A controversial government regulation that would require donor organs to be distributed based on medical need rather than geography has been put on hold for a year.
Enactment of the regulation, proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services in April, was first scheduled for July 1 and has been postponed several times since then.
The Associated Press reported that the delay is part of an agreement reached by Congress on October 15 "in the final hours of negotiations" on a $500 budget bill, which requires the Institute of Medicine to study the organ allocation issue and to deliver a report by May.
The transplant issue was added to the House bill by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston of Louisiana. In September, Louisiana sued the Department of Health and Human Services in an attempt to stop the rule from becoming law. A Louisiana judge postponed implementation of the rule—which then was scheduled to become effective on October 1—pending a hearing this month. In the meantime, however, Congress has made the move to postpone the rule for a year.
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