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 ?

Intense media scrutiny surrounding one particular case of patient dumping and the resulting public outrage at the dumping of seriously ill indigent persons were among the key factors ultimately leading to the drafting of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act ("EMTALA").

Medical repatriation: examining the legal and ethical implications of an emerging practice

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

Dumping of patients from emergency departments is now outlawed under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Included in the 1985 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), the anti-dumping laws, which took effect in 1986, require Medicare-participating hospitals with emergency departments (EDs) to screen and stabilize emergency patients unless a physician certifies that the benefits of transfer outweigh the risks.

Commentary: economic transfers, the changing face of a familiar problem

"They know they can get treatment in this country." 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.

Mexican ambulance raids. (Insider Report)

THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL TREATMENT AND ACTIVE LABOR ACT (EMTALA) HELPS TO ENSURE QUALITY CARE.

No Suit for `Risk of Negligence' Under EMTALA

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