preview

Emtala Essay

Better Essays

EMTALA: The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was enacted in 1986 as a part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1985. EMTALA was enacted to prevent hospitals with Emergency Departments from refusing to treat or transferring patients with emergency medical conditions (EMC) due to an inability to pay for their services. This act also applies to satellite locations whom advertise titles such as “Immediate Care” or “Urgent Care,” and all other facilities where one-third of their patient intake are walk-ins. Several rules and regulations to this act have been established and it has become a very serious piece of legislation and health …show more content…

33-41). Patients should be treated with the same medical procedure regardless of their ability to pay or not. On April 7, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed COBRA into law, which is a part of the Social Security Act. COBRA maintains several rights to patients such as the extension of health care coverage after leaving one’s job (Moy, 2010, pp. 33-41). This ensures the patient will have health insurance even when they are between occupations. Within the 2,000 page legislation is the Medicare and Medicaid amendment section of COBRA where patient dumping, now known as EMTALA, is located (Moy, 2010, pp. 33-41). Some believed the law was not necessary such as Senator Hatch whom expressed, “I do not support the provisions of [EMTALA] included in this bill. I believe they are premature, over-regulatory, and unnecessarily punitive” (Moy, 2010, pp. 33-41). It is highly important to understand the true purpose of EMTALA, because it can easily be confused with a medical malpractice act or assuring standard of care, but this is not the case. The following excerpt from Moy’s EMTALA Answer Book provides a clear purpose to the establishment of EMTALA: “The avowed purpose of EMTALA is not to guarantee that all patient were properly diagnosed, or even to assure they received adequate care, but instead to provide an ‘adequate first response to a medical

Get Access