Health Department Promises Action on Organ Donation After New York Focus Reporting

The New York health department is planning to implement a potentially lifesaving 2022 law that it has ignored for years after New York Focus recently reported on the department’s failure to act.

The law, known as the Living Donor Support Act, would reimburse voluntary kidney donors up to $14,000 for their medical costs, travel, and lost wages. Supporters estimate that it could save up to 100 lives a year, at low cost to the state.

The law was required to take effect in spring 2023, but the health department failed to implement it, citing problems hiring staff and designing the program.

But that may soon change. At a legislative hearing last week, Health Commissioner James McDonald said that the department is “working hard” to get the law off the ground and promised lawmakers that “we’re going to implement it this year.” It’s the first time that the department has publicly provided a timeline for when the law will take effect.

Richard Gottfried, a former state assemblymember who sponsored the law, said that implementation “could have and should have happened well before now,” but that he’d seen many laws face similar delays over his 52 years in the legislature.

“The only remedy is for the people who advocate for a particular program to understand that they’re going to need to keep prodding and pushing if they want to get it done, and contacting members of the press,” he said.

Governor Kathy Hochul’s agenda for this year includes a similar measure to the Living Donor Support Act: a tax credit of up to $10,000 to reimburse organ donors for the cost of their donation. If that gets passed into law, donors would be able to claim either the tax credit or the health department reimbursement, but not both.

In addition to McDonald’s pledge to the legislature, the health department also sent a letter promising action to Elaine Perlman, who leads an organization promoting kidney donation and was one of the main backers of the law.

The letter was apparently prompted by Perlman’s February 6 post on X (formerly Twitter), when she replied to a post by McDonald, the health commissioner, with a link to the New York Focus article. Later that day, she said, she received an email from a health department employee, who told her that implementing the law was a “top priority” for the department. She received the letter the following day.