The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 13955dd (EMTALA), is the federal statute designed to prevent “patient dumping”—e.g., the transfer of patients who cannot pay for emergency medical services. Because the statute imposes additional money penalties ($50,000 per violation) on top of monies that are recoverable in a medical negligence claim, EMTALA holds some attraction for the plaintiff’s bar.
Key Provisions of the EMTALA Statute
EMTALA was enacted as a result of concerns over inadequate emergency room care for poor and uninsured patients. It was designed to prevent hospitals from refusing to provide emergency treatment and from transferring patients before their emergency condition stabilized, as in Slabik v. Sorrentino, 891 F. Supp. 235 (E.D. Pa. 1995). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has emphasized that EMTALA was “not intended to create a federal malpractice statute or cover cases of hospital negligence,” as in Torretti v. Main Line Hospital, 580 F.3d 168, 178 (3d Cir. 2009). Rather, the statute’s purpose is to require “hospitals to provide medical screening and stabilizing treatment to individuals seeking emergency care in a nondiscriminatory manner.”
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