Question

One of your friends had a very serious medical emergency and had to go to the hospital for treatment. She was very upset because upon her arrival, she was asked for her insurance card, which she did not have, and was transferred to another hospital. You had learned there was a law that was passed that made this type of treatment by a hospital illegal. However, before telling your friend opinion, you wanted to find out more about this law and whether it applied to her situation. Activity: Perform internet research on the EMTALA act and write up a report on whether you think the EMTALA was applicable in this situation

the basic's of health care delivery is what it should be based on.

Answer 1

EMTALA is the emergency medical treatment and labor act, was enacted in 1986. As an anti- dumping law, it was designed to prevent hospitals from discharging or transferring uninsured or medicaid patients to public hospital without providing at minimum a medical screening and stabilizing the patient's emergency condition. It limits the ability of a hospital to transfer a patient with an medical emergency condition.

According to this in an emergency condition :-

1 patient should be given a screening examination

2. The patient must be treated until the patient is stabilized

3.They should maintain on call physcians round the clock

4.Provide an appropriate transfer to another hospital if it cannot stabilize the patient after securing acceptance from a receiving hospital.

5.Accept appropriate transfers from referring hospitals if the receiving hospital has the capability and capacity to treat the patient.

Penalties for hospital and doctors not following the law:-

1.fine up to $50, 000 per incident

2.Exclusion from the medicare and medicaid programs.

3.Potential liability in civil law suits

In the above said condition the patient was to be screened for any serious illness, stabilized and then transferred to another hospital. Instead of transferred on the first hand without screening her medical condition.