The Biden administration unveiled a plan that would push American hospitals to prioritize low-income patients when performing kidney transplants, a move Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra says is aimed at rooting out "racial inequities" in the "transplant process."
The proposal, which Becerra's agency announced on May 8, would place 90 of the nation's 257 transplant hospitals into a pilot program that uses an annual point system to grade participants. Under the system, a successful kidney transplant counts as one point. A transplant furnished to a low-income patient, however, counts as 1.2 points thanks to a "health equity performance adjustment," thus incentivizing the hospitals to prioritize such patients.
At the end of each year, those points are applied to a transplant quota. Hospitals that meet their quota receive as much as $8,000 per transplant; those that don't may have to pay up to $2,000 per transplant.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member