The Indiana Donor Network, a nonprofit in Indianapolis, sits on at least $81 million in assets and touts its mission as “saving lives and enhancing the quality of life through organ, tissue, and eye donation and transplantation.” But federal prosecutors have begun to question that pledge—concerned about its use of private jets for personal trips among the charity’s staff and donors.
Now, that group and two other nonprofits are under the microscope in a new investigation launched by Republicans in Congress—who say they may have overbilled the government for Medicare costs.
On Wednesday, Jason Smith—a Missouri Republican who leads the powerful House Ways and Means Committee—wrote to the Indiana Donor Network, the LifeShare Network, and the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network to alert them of his concerns about their potential mishandling of federal dollars. In letters, Smith requested their financial records and other documents as part of a probe into their compliance with a program allowing the groups to be reimbursed through Medicare—the health insurance program for people age 65 or older.
“Recent reports of fraud, abuse, and corruption at several of these organizations are deserving of investigation in order to maintain public trust in our nation’s organ donations network and to ensure these entities are operating within their stated tax-exempt purpose,” Smith told The Free Press. He said the committee “will pursue any and all legislative means to ensure accountability and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse within our public healthcare system.”
The Wednesday letters, which were obtained by The Free Press, constitute what the Ways and Means Committee believes to be the first step in a broader investigation into possible corruption in the healthcare sector, including as it relates to government-funded reimbursements. The House committee has jurisdiction over Medicare, Medicaid, and other social services programs, and it helps to shape tax laws.
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that some organ transplant groups in states have worked to pressure families into surgeries—as an apparent means to profit even if organ removal might be premature.
News of the congressional investigation comes the same week that the Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Department announced it found “disturbing practices” by a major organ procurement organization (OPO) called Network for Hope that serves Kentucky, southwest Ohio, and parts of West Virginia. OPOs, like the three groups targeted by the House panel, are tax-exempt and receive federal contracts to work with hospitals to identify organ donors. In turn, the OPO program is overseen by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services—an agency that reimburses nonprofits for the costs of preserving and transporting organs.
The Indiana Donor Network, one of the OPOs under scrutiny, formed in 1987 and disclosed more than $92 million in annual revenue on its tax forms filed last year. In February, the network said it transplanted a record 1,388 organs in 2024. Its services are in high demand: Almost 100,000 people at any time, for instance, are estimated to be waiting for a kidney. The average wait time is three to five years, according to the Kidney Transplant Waitlist.
The letter to the Indiana Donor Network’s president and CEO, Kellie Tremain, said the House committee is looking at the potential misuse of jet charter flights for nonmedical purposes. It cited a Wall Street Journal report from November 2024. The Washington Post also reported on a probe into the organ transplant system in February 2024.
According to the Indiana Donor Network, flights that are unrelated to its mission accounted for only 1 percent of all its flights, and the group no longer conducts these kinds of charter flights.
“The committee wants to confirm that these flights were not incorrectly submitted on your Medicare Cost Report and reimbursed with taxpayer dollars,” Smith wrote in the letter, which, like the other two, was also signed by David Schweikert, an Arizona Republican congressman.
They asked who at the group had the authority to charter flights, for flight logs in recent years, and whether the network paid any federal excise tax on charter flights for personal travel. Nonprofits may be subject to this type of tax for any number of reasons, including for flying and fuel, according to the National Business Aviation Association.
The committee is also examining compensation at the charity. The network paid its board members and senior leadership more than $4.7 million in its last fiscal year, according to tax records. The IRS holds that charities should pay these people a compensation that is “reasonable,” though it does not specify limits. Violations can lead the IRS to revoke an organization’s nonprofit status.
The Oklahoma City–based LifeShare Network, led by CEO Jeff Orlowski, is also facing congressional scrutiny. It is the parent of LifeShare Transplant Donor Services of Oklahoma as well as the LifeShare Foundation and another entity, LifeShare Tissue Services, Inc.
The LifeShare Network “serves as the administrative resource to its subsidiaries, allowing them to focus on their primary functions of procuring more organs and tissue resulting in more lives saved,” according its website.
The complex organizational structure has prompted concerns from the committee, which fielded responses on OPOs earlier this year through a public call for information. The lawmakers said the four LifeShare entities list Orlowski and two other people as executives, and that the arrangement “raises concerns that such intertwined business structures could be ripe for abuse.”
“The committee is concerned that there are not only potential risks of conflicts of interest between such related organizations, but that the Medicare reimbursement model for OPOs could allow cost shifting between these related parties to seek profitable tissue at the expense of taxpayers,” Smith and Schweikert wrote in the letter, which asked for an organizational chart, data for any financial transactions between the groups, and details on any of their conflict-of-interest policies. Nonprofits typically have conflict of interest policies that aim to ensure board directors do not benefit financially or otherwise from charitable activities. Federal regulations bar nonprofits from using the entities for “private benefit” or “private inurement.”
The committee’s letter to the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network was addressed to its CEO and president, Carolyn Welsh. Republicans are investigating its Medicare reimbursements for pancreatic research “as well as any reimbursements for kidneys that were labeled ‘intent to transplant’ that were ultimately never transplanted,” the letter said.
The committee, according to the letter, received reports that claim the group took Medicare reimbursements for unperformed research and knowingly collecting kidneys that are not suitable for transplantation. “The claims state that this resulted in organs being left in freezers or incinerated rather than being used for its stated research purpose,” the letter said. It asked for reimbursement reports, statistics on recovered kidneys, and other financial records.
In the letters, the Republicans listed a deadline of two weeks for responses. Two people close to the House committee said that subpoenas are not off the table to try to compel the groups to release documents if they do not share any voluntarily. “I strongly encourage the OPOs receiving these letters to swiftly provide the committee with the requested documentation,” Smith also told The Free Press.
The Free Press has reached out for comment to the Indiana Donor Network, the LifeShare Network, and the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network.
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