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Patient Dumping: Implications For The Elderly, George P. Smith Ii
Patient Dumping: Implications For The Elderly, George P. Smith Ii
Scholarly Articles
Before 1986, the Common Law provided that physicians and hospitals had no duty to admit or treat persons who sought their care except in limited circumstances. Congress enacted The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) to curb this so-called patient-dumping problem. EMTALA provides, essentially, that Medicare-participating hospitals must treat all patients who arrive in emergency conditions.
This article first discusses the patient-dumping problem and how EMTALA has provoked many hospitals to curtail their emergency facilities in order to avoid treating indigent and uninsured patients. The Article then proceeds to analyze the specifics of EMTALA’s main statutory provision, Section …