Platelet Supplier Required to Stop Paying for Blood
By LAURENCE DARMIENTO
Staff Reporter
HemaCare Corp., a major supplier of blood platelets to area hospitals, will no longer be able to use paid donors its primary local platelet source after losing a legislative battle with the nonprofit blood products industry.
The company was unable to get a bill passed in the Legislature that would have allowed it to continue compensating donors beyond Jan. 1, under a renewed exemption from state law prohibiting paid blood donors. HemaCare got its first exemption in 1986.
The latest bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Edward Vincent, D-Inglewood, failed to make it out of a Senate committee two weeks ago. That will force the company to drop its paid program and step up recruitment of volunteers.
“It’s a setback, but it’s not a death blow,” said Alan Darlington, chief executive of the Woodland Hills-based company.
Blood platelets are one of the main components of blood, and are critical for clotting. They are often transfused into cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, which kills platelets.
Last year, paid donors represented $6 million, or 24 percent, of company revenues. But the nonprofit blood industry contends that paid donors are inherently less safe than volunteers, because the lure of money may inhibit donors from divulging sexual or other behaviors that might put them at risk for contracting HIV, hepatitis and other blood-borne illnesses.
“If you are looking at the money you will get down the line, you might be tempted not to be honest,” said Dr. Ross Herron, medical director of the American Red Cross Blood Services, Southern California Region.
The industry also contends there is an overabundance of platelets in California that can make up any loss of supply from HemaCare, the only supplier of blood products in the state that uses paid donors.
Among the bill’s supporters in the Legislature were the California HealthCare Association, the state’s hospital trade association; several local hospitals, including Good Samaritan Hospital; and Los Angeles County.
Strongly opposed was the American Red Cross and Blood Centers of California, a group representing the state’s independent nonprofit blood centers.
HemaCare now plans to determine how many of its paid donors will continue donating platelets voluntarily, and is examining what incentives it can offer under federal law.
The company has been expanding its voluntary donor programs, Darlington said. HemaCare’s stock, trading at nearly $1.40 a share in April, was at 50 cents last week.
