During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) asked UNOS CEO, Dr. Maureen McBride about racial discrimination lawsuits against the organization.
00:00I yield five minutes to the ranking member for her line of questioning.
00:04Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
00:06This committee's bipartisan investigation has highlighted concerning reports,
00:13highlighted that concerning reports have emerged that the organ donation system has become unsafe,
00:19inequitable, self-dealing, and retaliatory.
00:22In addition to serving as the ranking member of the Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee for Energy and Commerce,
00:30I'm also the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
00:33I'm committed to ensuring that Black Americans have equal access to life and death organ donation and transplant services.
00:41However, by all accounts, the U.S. organ donation system is dangerously inequitable for Black patients.
00:49UNOS is facing multiple lawsuits related to practices that discriminate against Black patients,
00:57moving them further down the waiting list.
01:00And earlier this year, the New York Times ran a front-page story titled,
01:06Organ Transplant System in Chaos as Waiting Lists are Ignored,
01:12which has detailed how organ contractors are systemically ignoring the organ transplant waiting list
01:19in order to preference hospitals serving wider and wealthier patient populations.
01:26The reporting was clear, disregarding the list has worsened disparities.
01:33I want to be clear, disregarding the list, a process that has become rampant under the OPTN and UNOS,
01:43is a violation of basic trust and is killing vulnerable patients.
01:49This committee is investigating systemic inequity in the organ donation system that has happened under UNOS's watch.
01:59So, Dr. McBride, I'm looking for a yes or no answer.
02:03Is UNOS currently being sued for racist practices which disadvantaged Black patients
02:09on the kidney waiting list based on junk science, which assumes that they have more muscle mass?
02:16Thank you, Congresswoman.
02:20It is true that there are current lawsuits against UNOS in its role as the OPTN contractor
02:26for decisions that the OPTN board made regarding organ allocation policy.
02:32Did a past UNOS board member write that Black and rural Americans are less deserving of life-saving organ transplants
02:50because they are, quote, dumb for where they live?
02:57I am unable to comment on that, Congresswoman.
03:01That's been what's been reported.
03:03And, Dr. McBride, the New York Times has written on chaos in the waiting list due to rampant skipping of the list,
03:11a practice which has exploded while UNOS has been the operations contractor for the OPTN.
03:18Does the OPTN's data indicate that this practice of wait list skipping, in general, harmed Black patients?
03:27Thank you, Congresswoman.
03:29I would like to first clarify that UNOS's role is to support the OPTN and its policymaking and oversight decision-making process.
03:37UNOS does not make policies for the transplant community.
03:40We support the committees that are made up of volunteers from the community to implement those policy decisions.
03:48I 100% agree with you that skipping the list is not an acceptable practice,
03:53and the OPTN has been working very hard to address those problems.
03:57They have a number of efforts that are underway to address that situation.
04:04Unfortunately, many of them have been paused, but I would encourage HRSA and the OPTN to resume that work
04:12so that this issue can be addressed in a fulsome manner.
04:16This is disturbing, extremely disturbing.
04:21You know, we are talking life and death, and I'm assuming that, as a civil society, we are seeing donors across the board from every community.
04:34And we expect that recipients would be similarly reflected.
04:41And so I think there's a lot of work to do here within this ecosystem that has been created.
04:47And, Mr. Chairman, my hope is that when you report back to us, all of this has been dealt with effectively, efficiently,
04:57so that, again, the integrity of this life-saving enterprise meets the standards that all Americans expect from the work that you do on our behalf.
