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Organ Procurement Peer Review

"You can talk about OPOs, you can talk about transplantation centers, and you can talk about [transplantation professional societies] as if they were individual and not interconnected, but the reality is, we are intimately interconnected," Richard Formica, MD, president, the American Society of Transplantation (AST), told Medscape Medical News.

Earlier this year we commissioned an examination of peer-reviewed studies on several issues regarding OPO and transplant issues. Sadly, CMS relied on non-peer-reviewed information when creating the poorly crafted rule evaluating OPO performance.

Topics Reviewed

Health Management Associates reviewed the specific data basis for assumptions of fact stated in the recently promulgated rule concerning evaluation and recertification of the nation’s organ procurement organizations, and assumptions of fact asserted in the responsive comments. It was noted that most resources cited as source material within the proposed regulation were from non-traditional sources, including privately sponsored ‘white papers’, non-peer-reviewed articles, and single-sourced references. This broader literature review was commissioned by Science in Donation and Transplant, a non-profit entity engaged in assuring the dissemination of science-based research and informational resources for the development of public policy on donation and transplantation.

The primary subject areas identified for literature review include:

• Data Sourcing and Basis for Performance Measurement

• Inequities in Donation and Transplant

• Impact of Competition on Health Care Quality

• Impact of COVID

The articles included in this synopsis were included on their relevance and contribution to the understanding of the topics above, and not by their conclusions.

About Health Management Associates

Health Management Associates (HMA) is an independent, national research firm specializing in publicly funded health care and human services policy, programs, financing, and evaluation. We partner with government, public and private providers, health systems, health plans, community-based organizations, institutional investors, foundations, and associations to improve health care and social services. Drawing knowledge from the frontlines of health care delivery and reform, we work with our clients to explore innovative solutions to complex challenges. HMA has 22 offices and more than 200 multidisciplinary consultants coast to coast. Learn more at healthmanagement.com.