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Open conflict broke out among U.S. liver transplant centers Thursday, with doctors and patients in less populous parts of the country seeking a contempt of court order against the Health and Human Services Department and the nonprofit organization that runs the transplant system. Hospitals and patients on the waiting list for livers in places such as Georgia, Michigan, Kansas, Missouri and elsewhere accused the government and the United Network for Organ Sharing of defying a judge’s order to temporarily halt a new way of distributing those organs for transplant. (Bernstein, 5/16)

Amid the legal fight over the new national liver distribution policy, a federal judge on Wednesday ordered HHS to pause implementation efforts until an appellate court can weigh in. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg granted a request from a group of health systems to delay the policy while they appeal her earlier decision that HHS could move forward with the plans. HHS was set to start implementing the new liver distribution system May 14. (Luthi, 5/16)