There remains a critical shortage of organs to meet the needs of individuals with end-stage organ failure who can benefit from an organ transplant. As of March 2024, there were approximately 89,000 patients on the organ transplant wait list waiting for a kidney and 9,800 patients waiting for a liver. Kidneys and livers combined represent approximately 96 percent of the organ needs among patients on the organ transplant wait list.
People can donate a kidney, part of their liver, and certain other organs while alive. In 2023, nearly 7,000 people donated an organ while alive, including nearly 6,300 living kidney donors and 660 living liver donors.
HRSA’s Living Organ Donation Reimbursement Program (LODRP) provides financial assistance to people who wish to be living organ donors, but who might otherwise not be able to donate due to financial hardship. The program reimburses qualified expenses related to eligible living donors’ medical evaluations, surgeries, and follow-up visits, including travel, lost wages, child and elder care, and other expenses, as outlined in its notice about reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses toward living organ donation program eligibility.
From October 2007 to August 2024, the program (currently operated by the National Living Donor Assistance Center) received more than 18,000 applications for reimbursement by prospective living donors, approving nearly 89 percent of them. During this timeframe, NLDAC facilitated over 10,000 living organ donations. In 2023, the median household income for prospective living donor applicants to LODRP was approximately $66,000, which is 18 percent below the national median income level of $80,600.
While great progress has been made in expanding access to living organ transplants through HRSA’s LODRP program, we recognize that more needs to be done. For example, even though more than 60 percent of people on the national transplant waiting list are from a minority group, only approximately 40 percent of patients from a minority group received a living organ transplant through the program.
To expand awareness and access to the LODRP, particularly among medically underserved communities, HRSA created the PE-LODRP in FY2025. The recipient of this award will work closely with HRSA and the LODRP award recipient to promote the program and to provide targeted outreach and education to communities historically underserved by the program.
