Organ Procurement Organizations: Alternatives Being Developed to More Accurately Assess Performance
HEHS-98-26
Published: Nov 26, 1997. Publicly Released: Nov 26, 1997.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed whether the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) population-based standard appropriately measures the extent to which organ procurement organizations (OPO) are maximizing their ability to identify, procure, and transplant organs and tissue, focusing on: (1) the strengths and weaknesses of the current standard; and (2) alternatives to the current standard.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Health and Human Services | To better ensure that HCFA accurately assesses OPOs' organ procurement performance and that OPOs are maximizing the number of organs procured and transplanted, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct HCFA to evaluate the ongoing development of methods for determining the number of potential donors for an OPO. These methods include medical records reviews and a model to estimate the number of potential donors. If HCFA determines that one or both of these methods can accurately estimate the number of potential donors at a reasonable cost, it should choose one and begin assessing OPO performance accordingly. |
Closed – Implemented
Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has approved funding for a contract to evaluate one organization's model for estimating Organ Procurement Organization's (OPO's) potential organ donor pools. HCFA will use the evaluation to help determine the feasibility of using the model to estimate the numbers of organ donors and assess OPO performance against the estimates. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) (formerly known as HCFA) published a final rule on May 31, 2006, which includes new outcome and process performance measures for OPOs based on the organ donor potential and other related factors in each service area of qualified OPOs, with the goal to improve OPO performance and increase organ donation.
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Topics
Data collectionOrgan and tissue donationEnd-of-life issuesHealth care programsHealth resources utilizationInstitution accreditationMedical recordsNonprofit organizationsPerformance measuresPopulation statisticsStatistical methods