MIAMI — A federal report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday says officials are moving to decertify the University of Miami’s Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency after investigators found years of unsafe practices, inadequate training, chronic understaffing and paperwork errors.
The agency, part of the university’s health system, drew scrutiny after a 2024 mistake led a surgeon to reject a donated heart for a patient awaiting transplant surgery.
Officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the findings are tied to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s reform initiative announced in July.
At that time, investigators also found troubling issues at another organ procurement organization, including cases where patients may not have been deceased at the time of organ preparation, according to the report.
The report states that HHS’ reform efforts to rebuild integrity and trust in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) include:
- Safeguards to prevent line-skipping in organ allocation, which the report says are already protecting nearly 300 patients.
- A special election that drew record turnout to install an independent OPTN board.
- A strengthened misconduct reporting system that gives patients and providers a direct channel for safety concerns.
- A transparency tool that shows when organs are allocated outside the standard match list.
- Removal of diversity, equity and inclusion provisions from the 2024 IOTA model, which the report says was intended to ensure fairness.
“An organ procurement organization must serve as the trusted custodian of every donated organ,” Kennedy said in a news release. “Its job is to honor the gift of life by ensuring trained professionals recover every organ safely, match it fairly, and deliver it quickly to the patient who needs it most. We will not allow any participant to cut corners with human life.”
Nearly 100,000 Americans are on transplant waitlists, and an average of 13 patients die each day waiting for an organ, according to HHS officials.
Local 10 News has reached out to UM’s Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency for comment on the allegations.
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
