ConnectLife (Upstate New York Transplant Services)
NYWNCMS Tier 3
OPTN Region 9 — western New York (Buffalo region)
CMS performance & status
Table 5b lists OPO code NYWN with a CY2021 Tier Status of 3 (Tier 3): below the median cutoff on a rate measure.
This OPO is graded Tier 3 (2023 Assessment (CY2021 data)) under the CMS Conditions for Coverage outcome measures. Tier 3 is below the median on a required measure — the band CMS deems out of compliance and eligible for decertification.
OPOs hold board seats and reported financial stakes in tissue processors (per reform-group analysis of OPO 990s)
AlloSource board (executives from Donor Alliance, Iowa Donor Network, Mid-America Transplant, ConnectLife, Gift of Hope); MTF Biologics board (Midwest Transplant Network, LifeShare of Oklahoma, New Jersey Sharing Network)
A published analysis by Organ Donation Reform (costlyeffects.organdonationreform.org), citing the OPOs' own IRS Form 990 filings on ProPublica, states that executives from five named OPOs sit on AlloSource's board and that these OPOs hold ownership stakes in AlloSource ranging from $8 million to $26.4 million, and that executives from three additional named OPOs sit on the MTF Biologics board. This is an advocacy-group compilation derived from public 990 data, not a government finding; the underlying per-OPO 990 figures should be independently confirmed.
Several OPOs hold multimillion-dollar equity stakes in a nonprofit tissue processor (AlloSource), per 990s
Donor Alliance, Iowa Donor Network, Mid-America Transplant, ConnectLife, Gift of Hope (re: AlloSource, EIN 84-1327507)
A reform-advocacy review citing the organizations' IRS Form 990 filings (via ProPublica) reports that five OPOs — Donor Alliance, Iowa Donor Network, Mid-America Transplant, ConnectLife, and Gift of Hope — hold equity stakes in AlloSource ranging from about $8 million to $26.4 million, with executives from those OPOs sitting on AlloSource's board.
Every item is institution-level public record, source-linked; no patient, donor, or family is named. A Tier or finding here repeats the government's own assessment of an organization holding a public monopoly. Back to OrganWatch.