I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: okarol on April 08, 2009, 05:18:41 PM
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The National Living Donor Assistance Center says it's meeting its goal
4/7/2009 2:09:05 PM
The National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC), launched 18 months ago, says it is meeting its goal of lessening the burden of travel and living expenses toward living donation. More than 200 living donors have traveled to their transplant center to donate an organ with NLDAC funding. According to the center, nearly half of these donors said NLDAC made it possible to donate.
The Division of Transplantation, Health Resources and Services Administration provides funding for the four-year grant which was awarded to the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) and The University of Michigan (UM) through a competitive process. Eligibility is based on an income threshold of the recipient of the organ up to 300 percent of the current Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Poverty Guidelines. The program assumes that recipients whose income exceeds this level will have the ability to reimburse the living donor for the travel and subsistence expenses and any other qualifying expenses that can be authorized by the Secretary of HHS.
NLDAC said it has received more than 500 applications from 121 different transplant centers since its launch on Oct. 17, 2007. Eighty five percent of the applications received have been approved for funding. The average expense for travel and lodging has been $2,900 per donor.
The program has budgeted 1.3 million dollars for donor travel expenses in year three of this Federal grant.
http://www.nephronline.com/news.asp?N_ID=2794