​National Living Donor Assistance Center and  ​Lost Wages ​ (NLDAC)

​National Living Donor Assistance Center and  ​Lost Wages ​ (NLDAC)

The National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC) facilitates life-saving organ transplants by removing financial barriers to organ donation by living donors. NLDAC operates a nationwide system that provides reimbursement of travel expenses, foregone lost wages, and dependent care expenses to individuals being evaluated for –— or moving forward with – the generous act of organ donation. Priority is given to those who could not otherwise afford to donate, and about 75 percent of reimbursement recipients indicate that they would not be able to donate without this assistance. [Mathur, 2018]  

To increase the effectiveness of the NLDAC program, Arbor Research maintains a web-based system to manage reimbursement applications from transplant programs across the country and support NLDAC staff to reimburse funds in making reimbursement awards. In 2022, we worked with other NLDAC coordinating center staff, transplant program staff, and potential organ donors to design extended functionality: allowing applicants to initiate their own application online, more efficiently supply information and documentation, and benefit from direct engagement in the process. Our analytic evaluation staff have continually monitored program activity, and helped to identify and design program changes, such as the addition of reimbursement for lost wages in 2020 and dependent care expenses in 2021, that has been associated with increased program participation among living organ donors.