Taxpayers paid $405.6 million for kidneys in 2012 — even though doctors threw out 20 percent of them. Organ procurement organizations across the country have little incentive to fix the problem because they get paid whether the organ is used or not. For the 4,300 people who die waiting for a kidney transplant each year, the consequence of doctors throwing out 2,600 kidneys each year means everything. At the top of the list in 2012, the Center for Organ Recovery & Education in Western Pennsylvania had 40 percent of its kidneys end up in the garbage.
