EMTALA obligations for hospitals receiving transfers
Lutheran Hospital is committed to complying with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, widely known as EMTALA, and Intermountain Health's EMTALA Policy.
Compliance includes accepting patients from other hospitals within the United States that lack the capacity or capability to stabilize a patient with an emergency medical condition. Failure to comply with this requirement could result in fines, penalties or exclusion from Medicare participation.
All emergency and on-call specialty physicians should understand this EMTALA obligation to ensure that Lutheran remains compliant with Medicare Conditions of Participation.
Please review this brief education summary and the EMTALA Policy to understand these requirements.
EMTALA requires hospitals to provide a medical screening exam and stabilization to any patient who seeks emergency care, regardless of their ability to pay. Additionally, if the hospital is unable to stabilize the patient, it must transfer the patient to a higher level of care to provide stabilization.
The Code of Federal Regulations outlines these Recipient Hospital Responsibilities in §489.24(f): A participating hospital that has specialized capabilities or facilities (including, but not limited to, facilities such as burn units, shock-trauma units, neonatal intensive care units, or, with respect to rural areas, regional referral centers) may not refuse to accept from a referring hospital within the boundaries of the United States an appropriate transfer of an individual who requires such specialized capabilities or facilities if the receiving hospital has the capacity to treat the individual.
Key points for Emergency Medicine physicians, hospitalists and oncall specialists
Medicare-participating hospitals with specialized capabilities must accept transfers of individuals with unstabilized emergency medical conditions protected under EMTALA, provided they have the capacity to treat them.
The obligation to accept transfers applies to hospitals within the United States and territories.
Delays in treating transferred individuals based on their ability to pay or other discriminatory factors may violate EMTALA.
Treating and stabilizing a patient with an emergency medical condition pre-empts elective surgeries and procedures.
Thank you for your attention to this important element of EMTALA compliance. If you have questions, please contact our facility compliance officer, Patti Boltz, at patti.boltz@imail.org, or our EMTALA compliance partner, Angela Smart, at angela.smart@imail.org.