Chairmen Smith, Schweikert Launch Investigation into Tax Exempt Organ Procurement Organization “Network for Hope” Following Alarming Patient Safety Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a letter to Network for Hope, a Kentucky-based tax exempt Organ Procurement Organization (OPO), Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman David Schweikert (AZ-01) are demanding documents and records related to allegations of improper Medicare billing, financial conflicts of interest, and unsafe practices.

The request follows a damning Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) report finding officials at Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), one of two OPOs that merged and now constitute Network for Hope, encouraged hospital workers to perform organ recovery, despite signs of revival in patients. Due to these concerning reports, the Committee is investigating whether Network for Hope has engaged in Medicare fraud, improperly billed taxpayers for unallowable costs, or sought non-viable organs in order to recover tissue to be later sold for profit. All actions clearly violating its generous tax exempt status.

The letter follows a public call for information, as well as ongoing reviews of the activies of other OPOs, as part of the Committee's examination into whether these tax-exempt organizations are abiding by the existing laws and regulations that govern them.

In the letter, Chairman Smith and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Schweikert wrote, "The Committee on Ways and Means ("the Committee") is alarmed by the Health Resources & Services Administration ("HRSA") report which found that KODA officials pushed hospital workers toward organ recovery despite signs of revival in patients, and we want to examine the extent to which your organization is being reimbursed by Medicare for substandard and unsafe patient safety procedures during cases in which your organization may have operated outside of the standard of care or the law."

The letter continues, "HRSA's KODA investigation report found that, of roughly 350 cases handled by KODA from 2021 to 2024 in which plans to remove organs were ultimately canceled, there were 73 instances that should have prompted officials to have considered stopping sooner because the patients had high or improving levels of consciousness. Considering the increased number of organs recovered in 2023 and the increase in your acquisition and administrative costs that year, the Committee is concerned that your organization has received taxpayer funds through Medicare reimbursements for cases in which patients had high or improving levels of consciousness."

You can read the full letter to Network for Hope here.

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