ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 212
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
219th LEGISLATURE
INTRODUCED JANUARY 11, 2021
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman HERB CONAWAY, JR.
District 7 (Burlington)
Assemblyman DANIEL R. BENSON
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
Assemblyman STERLEY S. STANLEY
District 18 (Middlesex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman Vainieri Huttle
SYNOPSIS
Supporting NJ Sharing Network and opposing new federal rules on organ procurement organizations.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As reported by the Assembly Health Committee on March 8, 2021, with amendments.
An Assembly Resolution supporting the NJ Sharing Network and opposing the new federal rules on organ procurement organizations.
Whereas, The organ procurement organizations serving New Jersey have seen record levels of success in increasing organ donor registration and recoveries and, as a result, have saved the lives of 15,372 citizens over the past 32 years; and
Whereas, Even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, New Jersey procurement organizations and transplant hospitals have continued their successful partnership to save lives through transplants, with levels of transplants equaling numbers from preceding years; and
Whereas, The donation rate achieved by the NJ Sharing Network, New Jersey’s largest organ procurement organization, has increased at a rate of 35 percent over the past five years; and
Whereas, The NJ Sharing Network has demonstrated particular success in its outreach to minority and disadvantaged persons in New Jersey; and
Whereas, Despite these record gains, the Trump administration 1[has]1 implemented a new performance review process for organ procurement organizations under 42 C.F.R. Part 486, which threatens to shut down as many as half of the organ procurement organizations in the country in the next five years, with no plans for an alternate infrastructure to save the lives of nearly 4,000 New Jersey citizens awaiting life-saving organs; and
Whereas, The data upon which the Trump Administration 1[is purporting to base] based1 its actions 1[are] were1 not only inaccurate and biased but prohibited from such use by a federal contract executed between the Department of Health and the National Center for Health Statistics, which restricts the use of state-provided death certificate data to only medical and health research; and
Whereas, It is in the best interest of this State and health of its citizens to oppose the enforcement of 42 C.F.R. Part 486, which threatens to significantly reduce the number of organ procurement organizations based on inaccurate and invalid data; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This House condemns the
enforcement of any regulation purporting to assess any organ procurement
organization’s performance based upon standards derived from inaccurate and
invalid data.
2. This House further urges the State of New Jersey to enforce its contract with the National Center for Health Statistics, which restricts the use of state-provided death certificate data to only medical and health research and specifically prohibits its use in regulation and legislation such as that contained in 42 C.F.R. Part 486.
3. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly to the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Governor.