Daines, Cantwell Urge CMS to Protect Organ Donation Services, Recertify LifeCenter Northwest

• September 22, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) today sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy and Administrator Oz of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, urging strong support for the recertification of LifeCenter Northwest, the primary organ procurement organization (OPO) for the states of Montana, Washington, Alaska, and northern Idaho.

"LifeCenter Northwest is the federally designated OPO for a non-contiguous service area spanning three time zones and covering all of Alaska and Montana, most of Washington, and 11 counties in northern Idaho. The organization serves more than 10 million people across approximately 808,000 square miles and coordinates donation services for more than 200 hospitals. Despite serving this expansive region and large population, there are only five transplant centers in the entire service area, all located in Washington state. As a result, organs frequently must be transported over long distances within narrow clinical timeframes, often relying on air transport across a geographically dispersed region.

…We support performance evaluation frameworks grounded in sound, evidence-based measures. However, we are concerned that CMS's current OPO evaluation methodology does not adequately account for the unique circumstances and operational challenges inherent in serving a large, rural, geographically dispersed service area, like our region. These structural challenges include limited availability and proximity of transplant centers, variation in acceptance practices for medically complex organs, and unique transportation logistics. Unlike many CMS quality frameworks, the current methodology relies heavily on two closely related outcome measures, provides limited risk adjustment for differences in OPO circumstances, and does not recognize sustained year-over-year improvement. As result, effective OPOs, like LifeCenter Northwest, may be inaccurately assessed despite strong overall performance," they wrote in the letter.

Read the full letter HERE.

Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) joined Daines and Cantwell in sending the letter.

Representatives Michael Baumgartner (WA-05), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Troy Downing (MT-02), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Dan Newhouse (WA-04), Emily Randall (WA-06), Kim Schrier (WA-08), Adam Smith (WA-09), Marilyn Strickland (WA-10), and Ryan Zinke (MT-01) also joined in sending the letter.

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