PUBLIC STATEMENT
Media Contact:
Jenny Daigle | jdaigle@aopo.org
AOPO Statement on HHS Announcement Regarding Organ Donation System
McLean, VA (September 18, 2025) – Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced its intent to decertify Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a hospital-based organ procurement organization (OPO) based in Miami, serving 7 million people across six counties in South Florida and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
As advocates for the patients and donor families we serve, OPOs are committed to and invested in the ongoing improvement of our nation’s organ donation and transplantation system. We agree with Health Resources and Services Administration Administrator Thomas Engels’ remarks during an HHS press conference that “the system is safe.” Patient safety is the top priority for everyone involved in this lifesaving work and it guides our actions every day.
We want to thank HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., for conveying the healing power organ donation brought to his family and thousands of other families across the nation. We also appreciate Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, who recognized the important role of OPOs and called for their work to be celebrated while sharing his own experiences as an organ procurement and transplant surgeon bringing hope to the thousands of patients awaiting a life-saving transplant.
OPOs are driven by the greatest respect for life – both the lives of donors, and the lives of transplant patients. When donors and their families make the decision to give others a second chance at life, OPOs make a promise to support them, advocate for them, and ensure all safeguards and protocols are followed each and every time. It is our community’s calling to honor that promise in every aspect of our work.
Through this process, AOPO pledges that we and our members will keep saving lives nationwide. We will continue to support the team at Life Alliance to ensure South Florida organ donors, transplant patients and their families have access to organ donation and transplantation services.
Last year, more than 39,000 patients in the United States received a life-saving transplant from deceased donors, marking 14 years of consecutive growth in organ donation. Millions of Americans are alive today because of organ donation, and we encourage everyone to learn more and consider signing up as a donor. Each person who becomes an organ, eye and tissue donor can save up to eight lives and heal more than 75.