The federal government has directed the United Network for Organ Sharing to pause some of its oversight work amid the government shutdown.
As the primary contractor for the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, UNOS manages the nation’s donation and transplant system, facilitating matches and monitoring patient outcomes.
While critical services — including operation of the organ matching system and responding to serious patient safety risks — will continue, the OPTN has been ordered to pause much of its routine oversight responsibilities. As a result, many committee meetings have been canceled, a UNOS spokesperson told Becker’s. One specific area of work being paused is the monitoring of reports for policy implementation on heart and lung transplants.
“This committee work impacts patient care and access and includes work on matters such as organ allocation and multi-organ transplantation,” UNOS said in a statement.
“For the first time ever during a federal government shutdown, UNOS, in its capacity as an OPTN contractor, has been directed by the government to pause much of the vitally important OPTN work,” the organization said. “The OPTN has never before been affected by a shutdown.”
The organization said it has furloughed 90 employees due to the shutdown and ongoing financial constraints, adding that the federal government owes it $10 million in reimbursement for work since 2024.
“We urge lawmakers to come to a swift resolution on funding to allow the federal government to reopen and the work of the OPTN to be reinstated in order to maintain patient safety and the integrity of the system,” UNOS said. “Patients’ lives depend on it.”
In a statement, HHS confirmed that “HRSA is only working on activities related to patient safety and on-going operations of the organ matching system” during the shutdown.
“Patients will not have any disruption in their ability to donate organs, be added to the waitlist, or access an organ transplant,” the agency said.
The disruption comes as the shutdown enters its eighth day with no immediate resolution in sight. Multiple Senate votes on competing funding bills have failed. At the center of the stalemate is a dispute over healthcare spending, with Democrats pushing to extend ACA premium subsidies before open enrollment begins and Republicans proposing a bill to keep the government funded at current levels through Nov. 21.
