WASHINGTON – As a former chairman and now senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has led a decades-long effort to expose corruption and enact reforms in the U.S. organ transplant system. Today, Grassley spoke at a Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care hearing to advocate for passage of his bipartisan legislation to enhance competition and accountability in the organ system. The hearing follows a meeting with administration officials last week, where Grassley condemned industry efforts to spread misleading information regarding the bill.
Prior to his statement, Grassley received bipartisan recognition for opening the initial investigation into the transplant system and for his work mentoring fellow Finance Committee members on oversight of the organ donor system.
“[Sen. Grassley,] you’ve been bulldogging this every step of the way… Thanks for all your good work… We are just so appreciative of your leading this for so many years.” – Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chair of the Senate Finance Committee
“[Sen. Young and I] have both been mentored by Sen. Grassley in regards to the need for this committee’s oversight on programs that we enact. He has taught us well. Sen. Grassley, thank you for your leadership on this issue.” – Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care
Video and transcript of Grassley’s full opening statement can be found below.
Thank you, Chairman Cardin.
Today, we’re here to visit about the urgent need to reform the transplant system and the deadly cost to patients and generous donor families due to decades of inaction.
In 2005, I started the investigation of the deadly failures of the United Network for Organ Sharing, UNOS, the monopoly tasked with managing the U.S. organ donation system.
Since then, more than 200,000 patients have needlessly died on the organ waiting list.
There’s a reason that I call UNOS the “fox guarding the hen house.”
For nearly two decades, UNOS has concealed serious problems at the nation’s organ procurement organizations – known as OPOs – instead of working to uncover and correct the corruption.
This human tragedy is even more horrific because many of these deaths were preventable.
They were the result of a corrupt, unaccountable monopoly that operates more like a cartel than a public servant.
Our bipartisan investigation, which started when I was chairman of the Finance Committee – and I already referred to Chairman Wyden’s efforts in working with me – uncovered kidneys lost in airports, technology systems that regularly go down and the coverup of patients’ deaths.
It uncovered a history of misinformation and lobbying against accountability and transparency for the local OPOs it’s supposed to oversee.
We’re also aware of ongoing threats to whistleblowers and patient advocates. Instead of amending its bylaws to protect these brave individuals, UNOS has continued its longstanding practice of intimidation and retaliation.
This is unacceptable.
Tens of thousands of organs go to waste every year, exploiting generous donor families, while organ procurement executives travel on luxury private jets to 5-star resorts.
Investigative reporting has revealed anti-competitive behavior designed to block new entities from the competitive bidding process for new contracts. Entities that have the technology and skills desperately needed to save more lives.
Our nation’s organ procurement system is a deadly failure. In recent years, UNOS has attempted to disguise its failures by misrepresenting alleged record increases in organ donations.
Unfortunately, these increases are the result of public health tragedies, including the opioid epidemic, which has ravaged our rural communities.
It’s time that we put an end to UNOS’s attempts to use the nation’s drug crisis to juice up its numbers to try and show the system is working.
Simply put, the system is not working.
For too long, UNOS has run a system that benefits the executives who run it, collecting taxpayer-funded perks and paychecks.
It’s been more than 20 years since Forbes called UNOS “the federal monopoly that’s chilling the supply of transplantable organs and letting Americans who need them die needlessly.”
Our bipartisan investigation was clear: UNOS failed our fellow Americans, and disproportionately so with respect to people of color and rural residents.
The solution is also clear: Congress must pass our bipartisan legislation, S.1668.
Patients’ lives are at stake.
Thank you.
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