2 Impactful Ways to Celebrate National Kidney Month

March is National Kidney Month – a month dedicated to raising awareness around kidney care. With nearly 100,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States, it is essential that living donors are protected and not disincentivized from donating.

Make a real impact this month by taking action. Here are two things that can be done right now.

Tell Your Network About the Living Donor Circle of Excellence

We recently launched a brand-new website for the AST’s Living Donor Circle of Excellence program. If you haven’t seen it already, I encourage you to check it out.

The Living Donor Circle of Excellence is a corporate recognition program that celebrates employers that offer paid leave to employees who become living donors. Currently, 66 companies participate in the program, covering over 1.7 million employees.

We want all companies to join - whether it's a mom-and-pop pizza shop or a Fortune 500 corporation. The Circle of Excellence is free to join for any company that has (or is interested in implementing) a policy for living donors.

A full list of Circle of Excellence members can be found here. Everyone is encouraged to share this information with their networks, institutions, and living donor programs.

Living donors should not face the barrier of lost wages. Change starts with us. Together, let’s grow the Circle of Excellence and normalize living donor policies in the workplace.

Learn More

Contact Congress About the Living Donor Protection Act

This will be the easiest task you complete all day.

The Living Donor Protection Act of 2021 was reintroduced in the 117th Congress by Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark).

This legislation seeks to protect living organ donors from discrimination in areas of life and disability insurance.

This legislation would protect living donors and promote organ donation by:

• Prohibiting life, disability, and long-term care insurance companies from denying or limiting coverage or charging higher premiums for living organ donors
• Clarifying that living donors may use FMLA time to recover from the surgeries and procedures involved in donation
• Directing the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to update their materials on living donation to reflect these new protections and encourage more individuals to consider donating an organ.

Our grassroots software is extremely easy and quick to use. Our auto-generated emails will help you contact your Members of Congress in just a few minutes. 

Contact Congress

I appreciate your support in these two areas. As a transplant professional, your voice is essential to move the needle with these issues.