October 12, 2012
It happened again! I got distracted by what's going on in the transplant industry in the U.S. The industry executives and managers have been very successful in casting the Organ Procurement Organizations as being beneficent life savers. The truth is most of these so-called non-profits are anything but altruistic or beneficent. The most egregious practice they engage in is to keep the cadaver organ market short of numbers. This ensures, through the law of supply and demand, that the ORGAN PROCUREMENT FEES levied for organs will always be high.
Why are executives and managers of these OPO being paid such outrageous salaries? $800,000.00 per year for a relatively small non-profit? We are not talking about the American Red Cross or a worldwide UN health agency. We are talking about 58 regional Organ Procurement Organizations covering a few counties in the geographic area. Why are these executives and managers able to through lavish parties for themselves and there friends under the guise of promoting organ donation as 2 agencies in California did recently. One for Rose Bowl Week parties and the other spending over $80,000.00 on a retirement party for a former CEO?
Now the big daddy of scamming the system, the private government contractor holding the government contract to control organ procurement and allocation, United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), announces a NEW allocation protocol for kidneys. IT'S NOT NEW! It has been in practice since at least 2004. It was formally announced at an UNOS meeting, which I attended, in Dallas on February 7, 2007. The thrust of the protocol is to make organs available based on age. Talk about death panels! Anyone 50 years of age or older will be at a disadvantage. This policy is built on a platform of blatant discrimination!
Next installment I will describe what Life Years From Transplant (LYFT) is all about as well as the ECD organ scam for older patients!
Robert Hickey blog
http://www.innovativestrategies.us/
