To subsidize the United Network for Organ Sharing's considerable efforts to oppose the government's proposal to change the way organs are distributed, UNOS has asked each of its member transplant centers to kick in $2909.
In a letter to UNOS members dated November 2, UNOS President William W. Pfaff, MD, asked the centers "to pay a voluntary assessment to help offset the cost" of fighting a proposed governmental rule to require organs to be distributed based on medical need rather than geography. The rule was originally scheduled to become effective last July, but implementation has been postponed until October 1999.
Costs to fight the regulation have "been significant, and because the need for them arose well into UNOS' fiscal year, they were not included in the 1998 operating budget," Dr. Pfaff said in his letter.
"We must ensure that UNOS is capable of responding effectively to serve its constituents well, and this [monetary] assessment is designed to permit UNOS to maintain the financial resources necessary to do so," he wrote.
Not all transplant centers oppose the proposed regulation. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has been particularly outspoken in its stance favoring a nationwide system of organ distribution.
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