Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act

EMTALA

An American federal statute that prohibits a hospital from failing to treat or stabilize indigent medical patients simply because of their low-income status. The statute mandates that the hospital where a patient comes for care 1. perform a screening medical examination and 2. stabilize any emergent condition the patient has. The hospital must not transfer the patient to another facility without receiving explicit permission to do so from an attending physician at the receiving facility.

References in periodicals archive ?

A deceased inmate's family brought an action under [ss] 1983, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, and Puerto Rico's civil cede.

Failure to protect

More than 90% of these hospitals violated the screening, stabilizing, treatment, or transfer provisions of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986.

PATIENT DUMPING

The patient brought suit against the hospital, alleging that it violated an Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) for, inter alia, failing to provide an appropriate medical screening and/or examination; failing to provide stabilizing medical treatment; failing to utilize staff available at the hospital to perform its duties and discharging her (which constitutes a transfer under EMTALA) while she was suffering from an unstabilized emergency condition.

OK: Failure to Treat Patient's `Visible Injury': Hospitals Have Non-Delegable EMTALA Duty

Under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, hospitals with emergency room services are required to treat anyone who requires care, including illegal aliens--but the act does not specify who is liable for the costs.