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A resource for current information about the Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, also known as COBRA or the Patient Anti-Dumping Law.
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News about EMTALA
September 25, 2005 - We have updated our FAQ, adding as Special Question No. 6 a recurring inquiry: This is what happened at our facility. [Facts and events are recounted.] Is this a violation of EMTALA?
Frequently Asked Questions
Reference information
- Statute and regulations - See our Source Materials section. This section also includes the materials relating to the State Operating Manual and the Interpretive Guidelines used by CMS in doing hospital compliance surveys.
- Cases on EMTALA - We have prepared a listing and short description of most judicial decisions issued on EMTALA in recent years. This page also provides links to the short articles and commentary that we have posted regarding key cases.
- Our writeups - Short articles on selected cases
- Roberts v. Galen of Virginia - The Supreme Court misses the boat on EMTALA
- Bryan v. University of Virginia - The Fourth Circuit retrenches on Baby K
- Dollard v. Allen - Application of EMTALA requirements to inpatients
- Summers v Baptist Medical Center (on rehearing)
Additional information
- Some information on the history of EMTALA.
- A short bibliography of articles about EMTALA.
- Information from OIG on its enforcement activities.
- A brief selection from the OIG's 1999 draft Compliance Program Guidance for Medicare+Choice plans, addressing the pre-authorization issue.
- Emergency Care - EMTALA Implementation and Enforcement Issues, published in June 2001 by the General Accounting Office, in PDF format - Acrobat Reader needed
Contacting CMS
If you wish to contact CMS for any reason, including making an admininstrative complaint about a particular case, the contact procedure has changed. Visit the Medicare contact search page, check the "Quality of Care/Complaints" box, and select your state from the drop-down list. When the listing of contacts comes up, find the contact for "Complaints about quality of care". Be sure to follow up any telephone contact with a written complaint. Keep a copy of what you send and a record of when it was sent.
Other EMTALA sites
Challenges in the Delivery of ED Care Under COBRA/EMTALA Requirements - Article on EMTALA exposures from the Harvard Risk Management Foundation's Forum
American College of Emergency Physicians -- Its new page devoted to EMTALA issues
Acute Care Inc. is an Iowa-based group of emergency physicians. This is its informational page on EMTALA.
COBRA laws -- Joe Wood, M.D., J.D. - at the e-Medicine site