HCFA paves way for workers’ comp coverage of transplants

Workers’ compensation is not normally thought of as a way to pay for organ transplants. However, recent precedent-setting actions by the Health Care Financing Administration could soon change that situation, said attorney Mark E. Solomons, Esq., of the Washington, DC, law firm Arter & Hadden, in a recent meeting of the American Bar Association.

Provided certain selection procedures are met and the transplant is performed in an approved medical facility, HCFA now permits Medicare to pay "reasonable or necessary expenses for heart, lung and liver transplants for covered beneficiaries," Solomons says.

HCFA’s decision to permit Medicare to pay for these specific transplants makes it "more difficult for a workers’ compensation system to deny coverage for reasons that now suffice in the case of a Medicare claim," reasons Solomon.