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Emergency Room Dumping Of Individuals and Pregnant Women

The federal statute known as Emergency Medical Treatment And Active Labor Act (EMTALA) , 42 U.S.C. Section 1395 dd, et seq., also known as the federal "anti- dumping" statute, provides that a hospital which participates in the Medicare program and has an Emergency Room, cannot reject or “dump” a patient who arrives with an emergency medical condition and may not delay provision of an appropriate medical screening examination and treatment “in order to inquire about the individual’s method of payment or insurance status”.

A clear example of a violation of the EMTALA law is the rejection of a patient who has no medical insurance or has a medical insurance not acceptable to the hospital, like “La Reforma” government insurance.

The Emergency Room “must provide for an appropriate medical screening examination within the capability of the hospital’s emergency department, including ancillary services routinely available to the emergency department, to determine whether or not an emergency medical condition” exists, whenever an individual and most importantly a pregnant woman who might be in labor, arrives at the Emergency Room.

EMTALA provides that once a hospital’s Emergency Room has determined that the individual has an “emergency medical condition”, the hospital must provide either “within the staff and facilities available at the hospital, for such further medical examination and such treatment as may be required to stabilize the medical condition or transfer of the individual to another medical facility”.

The Law restricts transfers to another hospital until the individual is first stabilized and the hospital has complied with “an appropriate transfer”, as defined by EMTALA.

“Although the exact scope of the rights guaranteed to patients by EMTALA is still not fully defined, it is clear that at a minimum Congress manifested an intent that all patients be treated fairly when they arrive in the emergency department of a participating hospital and that all patients who need some treatment will get a first response at minimum and will not simply be turned away”. Reynolds v. Maine General Health, 218 F. 3d 78 (1st Cir. 2000); Barber v. Hospital Corp. of America, 977 F. 2d 872, 880 (4th Cir. 1992).

EMTALA is a limited anti-dumping statute, but it does not create a general federal cause of action for medical malpractice in emergency rooms. EMTALA is not a Medical Malpractice Statute. But if the Emergency Room violates in the process of dumping a patient the standard of excellence in the practice of Emergency Medicine generally accepted by the medical profession and causes serious damages or wrongful death to a patient, a separate action for malpractice may be filed under local law.

Contact Us for a FREE CASE REVIEW should you have an Emergency Room Dumping and/or a Medical Malpractice case.