Patient dumping — refusing patients care due to their inability to pay — still occurs despite the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act that requires hospitals' emergency departments to treat all patients regardless of ability to pay, according to a Health Affairs study.
The authors suggested regulators take the following steps to prevent patient dumping:
1. Create clearer standards on what constitutes appropriate screening and stabilization practices.
2. Curb demands for evidence of insurance when emergency care services are sought.
3. Establish objective standards for measuring the adequacy of on-call specialists in both individual hospitals and multi-facility corporations.
4. Make records comparing a hospital's previous provision of specialty services for the same complaint easily accessible to regulators and parties to enforcement actions.
5. Evaluate transfer requests by hospitals with specialized capabilities.
6. Simplify the reporting system to shift the investigation responsibility from patients and hospitals to enforcement agencies.
Study: Hospitals Serving More Minority Patients May Have More Crowded EDs
Study: Diabetic Children With Medicaid Revisited ED More Often Than Those With Private Insurance
The authors suggested regulators take the following steps to prevent patient dumping:
1. Create clearer standards on what constitutes appropriate screening and stabilization practices.
2. Curb demands for evidence of insurance when emergency care services are sought.
3. Establish objective standards for measuring the adequacy of on-call specialists in both individual hospitals and multi-facility corporations.
4. Make records comparing a hospital's previous provision of specialty services for the same complaint easily accessible to regulators and parties to enforcement actions.
5. Evaluate transfer requests by hospitals with specialized capabilities.
6. Simplify the reporting system to shift the investigation responsibility from patients and hospitals to enforcement agencies.
More Articles on ED Utilization:
Study: Point-of-Care Testing Decreases ED Length of StayStudy: Hospitals Serving More Minority Patients May Have More Crowded EDs
Study: Diabetic Children With Medicaid Revisited ED More Often Than Those With Private Insurance