HHS Announces Decertification of Florida OPO and Instates Further Safety Guidelines for Our Organ Procurement and Transplant System

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Congressman John Joyce, M.D. (PA-13), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, issued the following statement in response to an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of a decision to decertify the organ procurement organization (OPO) covering South Florida, as well as new efforts by the Health Services and Resources Administration's (HRSA) to improve operations within the organ procurement and transplant system.

"It is critical to ensure that all entities involved in the organ procurement and transplantation process operate safely, and we are grateful to HHS for their instrumental action taken today to mitigate some of the harmful practices that have come to light through rigorous investigations by this Committee and HRSA," said Chairmen Guthrie and Joyce. "The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on issues related to patient safety in July and will continue working to protect patients and their families to restore trust in our nation's organ procurement and transplant system. We applaud HHS for building upon those efforts through the actions taken today and look forward to continuing to work with them."

Background:

• Today, HHS announced it is moving to decertify an Organ Procurement Organization (OPO)-the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a division of the University of Miami Health System-after an investigation uncovered years of unsafe practices, poor training, chronic underperformance, understaffing, and paperwork errors.
• HHS also announced reforms to restore integrity and trust in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), including:
• Imposing safeguards to prevent line-skipping in organ allocation, immediately protecting nearly 300 patients.
• Holding a special election, which spurred record turnout, to install an independent OPTN board.
• Establishing a strengthened misconduct reporting system, giving patients and providers a direct channel for safety concerns.
• Creating a transparency tool that shows when organs are allocated outside the standard match list.
• Removing "DEI" provisions from the 2024 IOTA model to ensure procedural fairness.
• Through its extensive investigation, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has uncovered concerning practices in our nation's organ procurement and transplant system.
• On July 22, 2025, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing examining concerning practices within our nation's organ procurement and transplant system that were also identified by HRSA's investigation.
• On September 12, 2025, Chairmen Guthrie and Joyce and Ranking Members Pallone and Clarke wrote a letter to HRSA requesting a briefing on its ongoing oversight of patient safety in our nation's organ procurement and transplant system.

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