It seems like an idea whose time should come, and for which there's growing support:
One simple change the government could make to encourage kidney donation
Donors often forgo wages for a couple weeks to save a life. That can be fixed.
By Dylan Matthews
"there’s a group that helps people with the travel costs associated with donating. It’s called the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC), and it’s funded by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which administers Medicare. But the group helps a relatively small number of donors.
...
"NLDAC can pay for “travel, lodging, meals, and incidental expenses,” but barring regulation from the HHS, it can’t reimburse lost wages or pay for child care for donors. The group is currently running a randomized controlled trial, funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, in a handful of transplant centers where it does reimburse for lost wages to see if offering that increases living donations.
"But NLDAC could adopt that policy nationally, right now, with a simple regulatory change. No action from Congress would be required, according to NLDAC’s own analysis. The HHS can, on its own, issue a rule permitting NLDAC to reimburse lost wages and child care expenses. And randomized trial aside, we already have strong reason to think that reimbursing lost wages would significantly increase donations.
...
One simple change the government could make to encourage kidney donation
Donors often forgo wages for a couple weeks to save a life. That can be fixed.
By Dylan Matthews
"there’s a group that helps people with the travel costs associated with donating. It’s called the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC), and it’s funded by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which administers Medicare. But the group helps a relatively small number of donors.
...
"NLDAC can pay for “travel, lodging, meals, and incidental expenses,” but barring regulation from the HHS, it can’t reimburse lost wages or pay for child care for donors. The group is currently running a randomized controlled trial, funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, in a handful of transplant centers where it does reimburse for lost wages to see if offering that increases living donations.
"But NLDAC could adopt that policy nationally, right now, with a simple regulatory change. No action from Congress would be required, according to NLDAC’s own analysis. The HHS can, on its own, issue a rule permitting NLDAC to reimburse lost wages and child care expenses. And randomized trial aside, we already have strong reason to think that reimbursing lost wages would significantly increase donations.
...
"Waitlist Zero has been pushing this change, and Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA), a leader in Congress on kidney issues, is on board. Curiously, the National Kidney Foundation, perhaps the most high-profile nonprofit working on kidney issues, has declined to back this modest change. Troy Zimmerman, the group’s vice president of government relations, told me on the record that the group “supports the concept of paid leave for living donors but has not taken a position on this specific proposal.”
Their reluctance to vocally support this move is puzzling and frustrating. Letting NLDAC cover lost wages is a very modest change that would clearly help people, and move us closer to a world where there are finally enough donors to end the waitlist of people whose lives depend on a kidney transplant."
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Here are some earlier posts about NLDAC (I've been on their advisory board since 2016):
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