Congress acts on deceased organ system

 Last week the House and Senate passed, and forwarded to the president an Act meant to facilitate the reform of the U.S. system for recovering and allocating deceased donor organs for transplant, by contracting with different firms for different tasks, i.e. by breaking up the monopoly presently operated by UNOS.:

H.R.2544 - Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act118th Congress (2023-2024) | Get alerts

BILL

Sponsor:	Rep. Bucshon, Larry [R-IN-8] (Introduced 04/10/2023)
Committees:	House - Energy and Commerce
Committee Meetings:	05/24/23 10:00AM 05/17/23 10:00AM 04/19/23 10:00AM (All Meetings)
Committee Reports:	H. Rept. 118-140
Latest Action:	Senate - 07/28/2023 Message on Senate action sent to the House.  (All Actions)
Tracker: Tip	This bill has the status Passed Senate Here are the steps for Status of Legislation: Introduced Passed House Passed Senate To President Became Law

“(1) IN GENERAL.—The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network shall—

“(A) be operated through awards to public or private entities made by the Secretary ..."

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Here's a story in the Washington Post:

Congress authorizes overhaul of troubled organ transplant system  By Lenny Bernstein

"Congress approved a thorough revamp of the troubled U.S. organ transplant system Thursday, providing health officials with the authority to break monopoly control of the way kidneys, livers, lungs and other organs are delivered to sick patients.

"For 37 years, one nonprofit organization, the United Network for Organ Sharing, has held the federal contract to run the system, relying on a 1984 law that blocked almost all competition. With a unanimous vote Thursday night, the Senate rewrote the law to let the federal Health Resources and Services Administration break that stranglehold and solicit bids from other for-profit and nonprofit groups.

"The House approved the same measure Tuesday. President Biden is expected to sign it.

...

"Exactly how HRSA plans to redesign organ transplantation is still being worked out. The agency announced its intention to overhaul the system in March and went to Congress for the authority it needed."

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HRSA earlier this month held an OPTN Industry Day to start surfacing their (still evolving) plans to put out bids for both a transitional period and then for a next generation deceased-donor organ transplant system.

Here's the relevant HRSA page:

Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Modernization Initiative