The Health Resources and Services Administration on Wednesday unveiled plans to break up the private nonprofit overseeing the nation’s organ transplantation system, and called on Congress to help.
The move follows years of widespread, bipartisan scrutiny of the United Network for Organ Sharing, which operates the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, known as OPTN. The United Network for Organ Sharing holds the sole federal contract to oversee the country’s organ procurement organizations and transplant centers.
The new plan would award multiple contracts in order to “foster competition and ensure OPTN Board of Directors’ independence,” HRSA said.
