*This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 
1991.09.25 :  Medicare Liver Transplants

Contact:  Bob Hardy (202) 245-6145
September 25, 1991

       HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., today announced the
approval of eight hospitals that will provide the first adult
liver transplants covered by the Medicare program.
       These hospitals have been approved as Medicare adult liver
transplant centers because they meet specific requirements of
experience and success with this surgical procedure and have an
appropriate process for selecting patients for liver transplants:
       California-Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, Calif.
       University of Wisconsin Hospitals, Madison, Wis.
       University of Michigan Hospitals, Ann Arbor, Mich.
       University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Neb.
       UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, Calif.
       University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pa.
       The Hospital of the University of California at San
Francisco.
       Rush-Presbyterian Hospital, St. Luke's Medical Center,    
            Chicago, Ill.
       Secretary Sullivan said 31 hospitals have submitted
applications to be designated Medicare adult liver transplant
centers, and the applications of 23 are still under review. 
Medicare will not pay for adult liver transplants unless they are
performed in approved centers.
       "Our criteria for approval of these centers are designed
to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries receive the highest quality
of institutional and professional care when they receive liver
transplants,"  the secretary said.
       The announcement that Medicare would begin to cover adult
liver transplants was made in a proposed notice published in the
Federal Register March 8, 1990.  Medicare will pay for liver
transplants performed since that date in five of the eight
hospitals, because it was documented that the five hospitals met
the criteria by March 8, 1990.
       The three with different effective dates are, California-
Pacific Medical Center, for transplants performed after Dec. 26,
1990; University of California at San Francisco, for transplants
performed after Aug. 20, 1990; and Rush-Presbyterian Hospital,
for transplants performed after April 30, *This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 
1991. 

       Gail R. Wilensky, Ph.D., administrator of the Health Care
Financing Administration, said that "our decision to cover adult
liver transplants was based on research findings that the
procedure has advanced beyond the experimental phase and is safe
and effective for specific conditions.  We are pleased that this
life-saving technology can now be made available to Medicare
beneficiaries in appropriate facilities."

       She said the Medicare adult liver transplant program is
similar to the five-year-old Medicare program for heart
transplants.  Forty-nine hospitals have been approved as Medicare
heart transplant centers.

       To be approved as a Medicare adult liver transplant
center, a hospital must document a one-year survival rate of 77
percent 
and a two-year survival rate of 60 percent for adults who have
had liver transplants to treat specified conditions.

       The seven conditions for which Medicare will pay for adult
liver transplants are primary biliary cirrhosis; primary
sclerosing cholangitis; postnecrotic cirrhosis, hepatitis B
surface antigen negative; alcoholic cirrhosis; Alpha-1
antitrypsin deficiency disease; Wilson's disease and primary
hemochromatosis.


                                ###