Our mission is to reduce the financial disincentives to living organ donation. To this end, we operate a nationwide system that provides reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses, lost wages, and dependent care expenses to people being evaluated for and/or undergoing living organ donation. Priority is given to those who could not otherwise afford to donate.
Many people would like to donate an organ to a family member or friend, but would have trouble paying for related expenses—like transportation, lodging, food, and dependent care—that are not covered by insurance, especially if they lose wages during their recovery from donation surgery. The costs of the process can be a burden for donors and recipients; for some, these costs might make living organ donation impossible.
The National Living Donor Assistance Center exists to provide access to transplantation for those who want to donate, but face financial barriers to doing so.
This program is administered by the Division of Transplantation (DoT), Healthcare Systems Bureau (HSB), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), United States Health and Human Services (HHS) through a cooperative agreement with the University of Kansas (KU) and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS). For details about the legislation that authorizes this program and its history, please click here.
The authorizing legislation provides that funds made available through this grant program may not be made available to donating individuals under this program when payment for such expenses has been made, or can reasonably be expected to be made: 1) under any State compensation program, under an insurance policy, or under any Federal or State health benefits program; 2) by an entity that provides health services on a prepaid basis; or 3) by the recipient of the organ.
This program is authorized by section 377 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, 42 U.S.C. § 274f. The specific authority was authorized by the Organ Donation and Recovery Improvement Act (P.L. 108-216) which provided authority to the Secretary to establish this grant program to assist living donors who need financial assistance to help defray travel and subsistence expenses.
This program is administered by the Division of Transplantation (DoT), Healthcare Systems Bureau (HSB), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), United States Health and Human Services (HHS) through a cooperative agreement with the University of Arizona (UA) and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS).
In April 2006, HRSA and the Division of Transplantation, issued a request for applications to:
In September 2006, HRSA awarded the cooperative agreement to the University of Michigan with a subcontract to the American Society of Transplant Surgeons to establish and operate a National Living Donor Assistance Center. The HRSA award has since transferred from the University of Michigan to the University of Arizona in May, 2016. All program operations, team members and existing subcontracts have remained the same with the transfer.
In February 2007, the first meeting of the Advisory Group was held to establish proposed eligibility guidelines and program policies.
In April 2007, HRSA published proposed eligibility guidelines in the Federal Register for public comment through May 24, 2007. Thirty comments were received from the public. All of the comments strongly supported the federal government providing financial assistance for travel and subsistence expenses.
In June 2007, a conference call with the Advisory Group and HRSA was held to discuss public comments and make recommendations for final eligibility guidelines.
In October 2007, the eligibility guidelines were finalized by HRSA and published on the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC) website.
In October 2007, transplant centers were invited to register for the program on the NLDAC website.