An Urgent Advocacy Update on Lung Allocation Changes

Our advocacy efforts are continuing, and we are committed to keeping you informed!  

In November of 2025, the OPTN Board of directors voted to change the CAS point allocation system, taking points away from biological factors such as blood type and height disadvantage and reallocating those points to travel efficiency. The lung transplant professionals and elected lung transplant recipients on the OPTN Lung Committee unanimously opposed this change, based on their concern that this change could increase the number of people with significant medical urgency who pass away while on the list. The OPTN Board opted to move forward with this change without holding the customary public comment period prior to instituting this new policy. The new CAS point allocation system is expected to go into effect on May 7th.

Because the OPTN Board authorized this vote through an Emergency Pathway, the public comment period will open up within six months after their vote was taken, sometime before the end of May. We don’t know exactly when it will open up, but once it does we will only have thirty days to make our voices heard.

We’re getting ready to submit our public comments, and we want you to be ready too! We encourage you to have conversations with your friends, family, and community about this topic and why it matters to you. You may want to make a list of individuals you know who would be willing to submit their own public comment on this topic, and decide how you plan to reach out to them when it is time. If you belong to a transplant support group or online community, we encourage you to bring up this topic to make sure that everyone is aware of this change and the upcoming opportunity to get involved. Most importantly, be on the lookout for our call to action when the public comment window opens, and be ready to submit within thirty days. By submitting your public comment in the thirty day window, you will have an opportunity to have your voice heard on this critical topic that impacts all of us.  

For more information on this topic read the official letter the Lung Transplant Foundation submitted to the OPTN Board. If you have any clarifying questions on this topic, please email carmel@lungtransplantfoundation.org.