Transplant center marketing: Medicare approval, SRTR outcomes, wait times and living donors

Transplant programs market to people at one of the hardest points in their lives: a patient with organ failure deciding where to be evaluated and listed, a family member thinking about donating a kidney or part of a liver, a referring nephrologist or hepatologist choosing where to send a patient. The decisions are long, the stakes are high and the numbers are public, which makes transplant marketing different from almost any other service line. This guide is for transplant program directors, hospital marketing teams and the agencies that write transplant pages, ads, donor recruitment materials and referral packets.

Two related topics have their own guides and are not repeated here. The general rules for hospital advertising, including price transparency, physician ownership and nondiscrimination notices, are in our hospital marketing compliance guide. How to advertise CMS star ratings, rankings and awards is in our guide to hospital star rating advertising. Second opinion services have their own guide; see second opinion service marketing.

Medicare approval: what it means and how to say it

Transplant programs have their own Medicare conditions of participation on top of the hospital rules. Under 42 CFR 482.68, a transplant program located within a hospital that has a Medicare provider agreement must meet the conditions in 482.72 through 482.104 to be granted approval from CMS to provide transplant services, and it must also meet the general hospital conditions. The CMS organ transplant program page says these conditions were established in March 2007 and became effective on June 28, 2007, and that the list of Medicare-approved transplant programs is published on CMS’s Quality, Certification and Oversight Reports website.

Approval is organ specific. The CMS page notes, for example, that an intestine program must be located in a hospital with a Medicare-approved liver program, and a pancreas program in a hospital with a Medicare-approved kidney program. That has three consequences for copy:

• Say Medicare-approved only for the organ programs that appear on the CMS list, and check the list again before each campaign.
• Do not present Medicare approval as a ranking, an award or an endorsement. It means the program meets the conditions of participation; it does not compare one program with another.
• Keep adult and pediatric claims separate where your approval or your data treat them separately, since 42 CFR 482.80 has CMS review adult and pediatric outcomes separately when a program asks to do both.

Medicare approval also matters to patients for a practical reason that your consent materials must already explain. Under 42 CFR 482.102(a)(8), programs must inform each transplant patient that if the transplant is not provided in a Medicare-approved transplant program, it could affect the recipient’s ability to have immunosuppressive drugs paid for under Medicare Part B. Marketing should never contradict that disclosure, for example by implying that coverage is the same wherever the transplant happens.

Outcome numbers: use the SRTR report, cite it and date it

Transplant outcomes are measured and published by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, and the federal rules build on those reports. Under 42 CFR 482.80(c), CMS compares a program’s observed number of patient deaths and graft failures one year after transplant with the expected number, using the latest SRTR program-specific report, when it reviews a program for initial approval. Under 482.102(a)(5), the program’s written consent policies must inform each patient of national and program-specific outcomes from the latest SRTR program-specific report, including the program’s observed and expected one-year patient and graft survival and national one-year patient and graft survival.

SRTR’s page on program-specific reports says the reports are produced twice each year for each solid organ program, released publicly in January and July, and that the data are current as of about six months before the release date. As checked on October 30, 2026, that page listed the current national report as published July 2026, with the next update due January 2027. SRTR’s citations and permissions page says its material may be used without permission if appropriate citation is provided.

Put together, that gives a workable standard for any survival or graft figure in an ad, on a web page or in a referral packet:

• Use only figures that appear in your program’s current SRTR report, and name the report, the organ, the adult or pediatric cohort and the release month next to the number.
• Show the observed figure with the expected figure and the national figure, the same three the consent rule names, so the reader can see the comparison the report makes rather than a number on its own.
• Replace the figure when a new release comes out. A survival number from an older report left on a page after a new one is published is no longer the current data.
• Do not round, average across organs, combine cohorts or recalculate a figure into a new statistic the report does not contain.
• Do not describe a raw difference from the national figure as proof that your program performs better. SRTR publishes its risk adjustment methods; if you claim a comparison, the claim has to match what the report itself concludes.

This guide gives no survival figures of its own, and neither should copy that cannot point to the exact report it came from.

Wait-time and speed claims

Get transplanted faster, shorter waits than the national average and our patients spend less time on the list are lines a transplant marketer is drawn to, and among the riskiest. Under the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 45 prohibits deceptive acts or practices in commerce, and 15 U.S.C. 52 prohibits false advertisements likely to induce the purchase of services, among other things. The FTC’s Health Products Compliance Guidance (December 2022) says advertisers are responsible for the net impression an ad conveys to reasonable consumers, including implied claims, and that health-related claims need competent and reliable scientific evidence.

A wait-time line conveys a promise to the individual reader: list here and you will get an organ sooner. The SRTR program reports do include information about candidates on the waiting list and their outcomes, but SRTR’s own patient FAQ says transplant centers evaluate candidates on a case-by-case basis, that each center decides which medical characteristics it accepts, and that information about recent recipients does not determine whether a center would accept any particular candidate in the future. A program-level figure says nothing certain about one patient’s wait.

Organ allocation also follows national rules, not hospital marketing. Under 42 CFR 482.72, a transplant program must be in a hospital that is a member of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and abides by its rules and requirements. Copy should not suggest that choosing your program changes a patient’s priority under those rules. If you present any wait-related figure, take it from the current SRTR report with its date and cohort, say what it measures, and add a plain statement that individual waits depend on the patient’s medical situation and the national allocation rules.

Living donor recruitment without paying for organs

Living donor programs need to reach potential donors, and patients waiting for a kidney or liver may share their story in the hope that someone comes forward. That outreach is legitimate. What it cannot do is offer anything that looks like payment for the organ. Under 42 U.S.C. 274e(a), it is unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation if the transfer affects interstate commerce, with an exception for human organ paired donation. Under 274e(b), a violation can bring a fine, up to five years in prison, or both.

The same section says what valuable consideration does not include: the reasonable payments associated with the removal, transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control and storage of a human organ, and the expenses of travel, housing and lost wages incurred by the donor in connection with the donation. That distinction should drive donor recruitment copy:

• Describe expense support only as what it is: reimbursement or coverage of the donor’s travel, housing and lost wages connected with the donation, on the terms your program and counsel have approved.
• Never offer gift cards, prizes, bonuses, raffle entries or anything of value for donating, for agreeing to be evaluated or for sharing a post.
• Review patient-run donor appeals that your program helps create, so that no offer of payment or gifts appears in them.
• Explain paired donation accurately if you offer it, without suggesting that a donor is buying a place in line for a relative.

Donor pages must also stay consistent with the consent rules. Under 482.102(b), living donors must be fully informed about, among other things, the potential medical and psychosocial risks of donation, the possibility that future health problems related to the donation may not be covered by the donor’s insurance and that the donor’s ability to obtain health, disability or life insurance may be affected, and the donor’s right to opt out at any time. Under 42 CFR 482.98(d), a program that performs living donor transplants must identify an independent living donor advocate or advocate team, not involved in transplantation activities on a routine basis, to represent and advise the donor and to ensure the donor’s decision is informed and free from coercion. Copy such as no lasting effects or back to normal in days undercuts those disclosures, and pressure lines such as your loved one is running out of time put the advocate’s job at risk. Tell donors that an independent advocate exists and how to reach them.

Waiting list notices are not a marketing decision

Among the hardest messages a transplant program sends are notices the rules require, and marketing should never water them down or get ahead of them. Under 482.102(c), a program served by a single transplant surgeon or physician must tell waiting list patients about the potential unavailability of that clinician and whether there is a mechanism to provide an alternate. At least 30 days before a program’s Medicare approval is terminated, the program must inform waiting list patients, help those who choose to transfer to another Medicare-approved program without losing accrued waiting time, and tell Medicare recipients that Medicare will no longer pay for transplants there after the effective date. Before a voluntary inactivation, the program must inform waiting list patients as soon as possible.

Two practical points follow. First, when a program is inactive, losing approval or down to one surgeon, its web pages, ads and referral materials should change at the same time as the notices go out, so that no ad keeps inviting new patients to list at a program that cannot currently transplant them. Second, under 42 CFR 482.94(b), programs must keep their waiting lists up to date, so any waiting list count you publish should come from the same current data, with a date. The OPTN adds its own patient notification requirements; read the current OPTN policies with your transplant administrator rather than paraphrasing them in marketing.

Patient and donor stories

A recipient who is back at work, a donor who ran a race a year later, a family who met their donor: these stories are powerful, and they are endorsements. Under 16 CFR 255.2(b), an ad featuring a consumer’s experience on a central attribute of the service will likely be interpreted as representing that the experience is representative of what consumers will generally achieve, and if the advertiser lacks substantiation for that, the ad should clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected performance. Section 255.2(a) says consumer endorsements themselves are not competent and reliable scientific evidence. In transplant, the generally expected performance is what your SRTR report shows, so the honest disclosure points to it.

Before any story is used, get written authorization. Under 45 CFR 164.508(a)(3), a covered entity must obtain an authorization for any use or disclosure of protected health information for marketing, with narrow exceptions. Ask separately for donors and recipients, never imply that agreeing to a story affects care or listing, and keep the identities of deceased donors and their families out of marketing unless they have chosen to be public and counsel has reviewed it.

Illustration: two ways to advertise a transplant program

Illustration: [Hospital name] runs an ad that reads “Top-rated transplant center. Better survival than the national average. Get your new kidney faster. Donors: we take care of everything, plus a thank-you gift.” The survival line is a raw comparison from a report two releases old, with no expected figure and no cohort; the wait claim is a program average presented as a promise to the reader; the thank-you gift for donors is something of value offered in connection with donation; and top-rated has no stated basis.

Illustration: [Hospital name] runs an ad that reads “Kidney and liver transplant programs, Medicare-approved for adult transplants. See our latest SRTR results.” The landing page shows the program’s observed, expected and national one-year patient and graft survival from the current SRTR report, named and dated; says that individual waits depend on medical factors and national allocation rules; describes donor expense support as reimbursement of travel, housing and lost wages on stated terms; names the independent living donor advocate and how to reach them; and links to patient stories that carry a disclosure of generally expected results.

Checklist

• Confirm each organ program on the CMS list of Medicare-approved transplant programs before saying Medicare-approved.
• Do not present Medicare approval as a ranking or endorsement.
• Use survival and graft figures only from the current SRTR program-specific report, with organ, cohort and release month.
• Show observed, expected and national figures together, and replace them at each new January or July release.
• Do not claim better outcomes from a raw difference; match what the report concludes.
• Drop wait-time promises; if a figure is used, date it, define it and say individual waits vary with medical factors and national rules.
• Offer donors nothing of value beyond the expense support 42 U.S.C. 274e permits, and review patient-run donor appeals.
• Keep donor pages consistent with consent disclosures and name the independent living donor advocate.
• Change ads and pages the moment a program goes inactive, loses approval or drops to one surgeon.
• Treat recipient and donor stories as endorsements, disclose generally expected results and get written authorization first.

How we help

We build websites, local search, Google Ads and AI front desk tools for independent practices and health businesses. For a transplant program, that means program pages that show SRTR figures with their source and date and are easy to update at each release, ad copy that stays inside what the data support, and referral and donor inquiry forms that keep health information away from tracking tools. We do not decide what your approval covers, what a figure means or how donor support is structured; your transplant team and counsel do. Our tools are built with HIPAA in mind. We confirm in writing what a BAA covers before any patient information flows through a tool, and if it is not covered, we do not route patient information through it. We are not a healthcare provider and we do not give legal or medical advice. We do not sell lead lists and we do not pay for referrals. For the wider rules, see our healthcare marketing rules hub.

Sources

• CMS: Organ transplant program (special requirements for transplant programs)
• 42 CFR 482.68: Special requirement for transplant programs
• 42 CFR 482.72: OPTN membership
• 42 CFR 482.80: Data submission, clinical experience, and outcome requirements for initial approval
• 42 CFR 482.94: Patient and living donor management
• 42 CFR 482.98: Human resources (independent living donor advocate)
• 42 CFR 482.102: Patient and living donor rights
• SRTR: Program-specific reports (PSR)
• SRTR: Citations and permissions
• SRTR: FAQs for patients and donors
• 42 U.S.C. 274e: Prohibition of organ purchases
• 15 U.S.C. 45: Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices
• 15 U.S.C. 52: Dissemination of false advertisements
• FTC: Health Products Compliance Guidance (December 2022)
• 16 CFR 255.2: Consumer endorsements
• 45 CFR 164.508: Uses and disclosures for which an authorization is required
• OPTN: Policies

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