Doctors are not the only ones who sometimes find EMTALA confusing as a recent Tennessee case highlights. Lawyers apparently don’t understand it either. A patient came to the hospital with severe eye pain, was treated with eye drops, and sent home. A few days later he returned with increased pain and was given an ointment … Read more
When Theresa Penn experienced crushing chest pain, she went to her family physician’s clinic in her home town. He diagnosed ACS and AMI and attempted to arrange a direct admit to a cardiologist at the nearest hospital. The on-call cardiologist refsued the case because the intensive care unit was full, so the physician sent the … Read more
A study in the most recent edition of Health Affairs confirms that patient dumping is running rampant in Denver area hospitals in spite of EMTALA laws. Sara Rosenblum, lead investigator, called for aggressive enforcement of EMTALA by a government unit rather than relying on patient and hospital complaints. Denver is one of a number of major cities where hospitals … Read more
The blogs are ablaze with the idea that the Obamacare ruling by the Supreme Court now makes it likely that EMTALA will be successfully challenged in the Courts as Unconstitutional. The odd thing is that it is coming from supporters of Obamacare as an accusation that Tea Party supporters will take this approach. And they are suggesting it might win. … Read more
If you are a LinkedIn member, please feel free to look me up and send me an invite to connect. You can people search for Stephen Frew. If you are not familiar with LinkedIn, it the adult version of Facebook. It is ALL business and professional with hundreds of special interest groups for healthcare, legal, and compliance issues. … Read more