The Lost Wages Demonstration Project was a pilot program that provided reimbursement of up to $5000 in lost wages to eligible living organ donors. The program was only open to solid organ donors whose donation surgery took place before January 31, 2021 at one of the participating transplant centers selected for this program. If you have questions about this program, please contact NLDAC at (888) 870-5002. NLDAC now offers wage reimbursement to eligible donors at all U.S. transplant centers in good standing with OPTN.
This pilot program was created to learn about the effect of offering lost wage reimbursement on people’s willingness to be evaluated as a living donor, and to show the Health Resources and Services Administration how such a program could be run. To answer these questions, the pilot program took place in a small group of transplant centers that provided the data needed to assess the impact of the program within the available budget. The lessons learned informed decisions about the current lost wage reimbursement program and policies.