Insurance Coverage for Living Donors

The American Society of Transplantation (AST) supports providing health insurance related to the effects of living donation, both in the short and long term. Living organ donors face unique obstacles in their efforts to be insured. The transplant recipient’s policy routinely provides coverage for the care of the donor for a limited amount of time around the transplant. However, if the recipient dies during this period, coverage disappears for the donor, who potentially faces thousands of dollars in hospital expenses. Furthermore, complications occurring outside of the designated time period are supposed to be covered by the donor’s own insurance. However, some donors may not have had pre-existing insurance policies or the condition is deemed secondary to the donor procedure, a condition potentially not covered by the donor’s policy, leaving the donor with the significant out of pocket expense. Lastly, coverage for potentially unknown long-term complications may not be clearly delineated.

In summary, the AST supports initiatives providing coverage for living donors over both the short and long term.

Approved by the AST Board of Directors on March 2-3, 2009