Effective June 29, 2023, new safety net policies will be implemented for kidney-after-heart and kidney-after-lung allocation. The new policies are similar to the safety net provision already in effect for kidney-after-liver allocation.
Safety net priority classification will be available for qualifying heart, lung, or heart-lung recipients who are listed for a kidney transplant within 365 days of their thoracic transplant. Prior heart and lung recipients who meet eligibility criteria for kidney will receive additional priority on kidney matches. The policy notice addresses the criteria in detail. Programs may need to perform additional testing or get additional documentation to meet qualifying criteria.
Data entry also begins June 29 for simultaneous heart-kidney, lung-kidney allocation
While the safety net provision is implemented on June 29, transplant programs also will be able on that date to begin reporting data to support additional provisions of the policy that address candidate eligibility for simultaneous heart-kidney and lung-kidney allocation. This additional phase of the policy will be fully implemented in September 2023. Please refer to the separate article regarding the data entry phase.
Education available
An educational offering is available in UNOS Connect, the OPTN’s learning management system. The course number and title are:
- ORG102, Eligibility and Safety Net Criteria for Multi-Organ Transplant
