"The Trump administration moved Thursday to shut down a Miami organ donation group, calling it "failing" because of underperformance, unsafe practices and paperwork errors. The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is one of 55 organ procurement organizations, or OPOs, nonprofit agencies around the country that coordinate the recovery of organs from deceased donors and help match them to patients on the nation's transplant waiting list."
"Changes to the transplant system have been underway for years to increase donations, reduce waste of potentially usable organs and address other concerns. They include some new safeguards after complaints last year that a different OPO didn't stop donation preparations quickly enough when some patients showed signs of life, prompting some people to opt out of donor registries. Organ donation can proceed only after a hospital has declared someone dead - and by law, OPOs cannot be involved in that decision."
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services moved to decertify the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency in Miami, citing underperformance, unsafe practices, and paperwork errors. An investigation found a 2024 mistake that led a surgeon to decline a donated heart. Reported problems included unrecovered potential donations, misdirected organs, and staffing shortages. Life Alliance is a division of the University of Miami Health System and can appeal the decision; a shutdown would be the first federal decertification of an OPO. More than 100,000 Americans remain on transplant waiting lists; system reforms aim to increase donations, reduce organ waste, and add safeguards after prior complaints.
Read at Sun Sentinel
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