OPTN Region 10 — Northeast Ohio (Cleveland region)
CMS performance & status
Shown solid blue (Tier 1) on the CMS 2025 OPO Tier Status map based on 2023 performance data; OPO name and code OHLB confirmed in the document's OPO code table.
This OPO is graded Tier 1 (2025 (data year 2023)) under the CMS Conditions for Coverage outcome measures. Tier 1 is the top-performing band, automatically recertified.
NYT investigation: nearly 1 in 5 deceased-donor organs allocated out of sequence in 2024
New York Times investigation (reporting on LifeBanc / Cleveland Clinic)
A 2025 New York Times investigation found nearly 1 in 5 deceased-donor organs in 2024 were allocated outside the standard waiting list, roughly a sixfold rise, via "open offers." As reported, of 362 out-of-sequence organs handled by the Ohio OPO LifeBanc, 207 went to Cleveland Clinic, and the reporting stated that over five years more than 1,200 patients near the top of waiting lists died after being skipped, with the practice disproportionately disadvantaging certain demographic groups.
Individual OPOs self-reported pancreata-for-research increases ranging from 10% to 6,400% in a single year (2021-2022)
Donor Alliance; Lifebanc; Indiana Donor Network; OneLegacy; Texas Organ Sharing Alliance; and other surveyed OPOs
In responses cited by the Senate Finance Committee 'Operation Transplant' report, OPOs reported widely varying single-year (2021-2022) increases in pancreata placed for research: Donor Alliance reported a 6,400% increase, Lifebanc 2,000%, Indiana Donor Network 747%, Lifeline of Ohio 392%, OneLegacy 390%, LifeQuest 267%, Texas Organ Sharing Alliance 216%, Mid-America Transplant 56%, NJ Sharing Network 89%, and Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates 10%. The report flags these increases as evidence of possible gaming of CMS performance metrics.
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.