Officials: Transplant center talks go well, suggest hope

A telephone conference call Thursday involving parties with a stake in the fate of the state's only kidney transplant program "went as well as could possibly be expected," Congresswoman Shelley Berkley said.

Members of Nevada's congressional delegation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and University Medical Center participated in the call, held a week after the federal agency notified UMC the program would lose its certification Dec. 3.

Although Berkley expressed a general optimism, UMC officials went a step further in saying "a joint announcement between CMS and UMC should be imminent."

Berkley, D-Nev., said CMS is currently negotiating with UMC on correcting problems the federal health agency identified during two inspections of the hospital's kidney transplant center earlier this year.

"No decision has been made, but I hung up the phone feeling very encouraged,'' Berkley said Thursday afternoon.

Neither Berkley nor UMC officials would share many details about the conference call. However, Berkley did say CMS is concerned about the quality of care provided at the state's only transplant center. UMC's focus has to be on proving that it can provide quality of care that is acceptable to CMS, she said.

During inspections in March and August, CMS found that the transplant center's death rate for kidney transplants was significantly higher than its expected death rate, based on federal standards.

CMS identified more than 40 deficiencies in its original March survey, and UMC had corrected all but three of them by August. Because the corrections were not acceptable to CMS, the federal health agency presented two options to UMC: voluntarily withdraw from Medicare's transplant program or allow decertification by CMS.

UMC has until Monday to make a decision. Hospital officials have previously said they would voluntarily withdraw from the program.

In effort to prevent the program's dissolution, Reps. Berkley, Jon Porter, R-Nev., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., sent a letter to CMS urging it to reconsider. The move, they said, would ultimately shut down the program because Medicare pays for nearly 100 percent of all kidney transplants at the center.

Additionally, since the center is the only one of its kind in Nevada, some 200 people awaiting kidneys in Nevada would have to travel at least 300 miles out of the state for the procedure.

Contact reporter Annette Wells at awells@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.