The Association Between Hospital Characteristics and Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act Citation Events.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) is a federal law enacted in 1986 prohibiting patient dumping (refusing or transferring patients with emergency medical conditions without appropriate stabilization), and discrimination based upon ability to pay. We evaluate hospital-level features associated with citation for EMTALA violation.

Materials and methods

A retrospective analysis of observational data on EMTALA enforcement (2005-2013). Regression analysis evaluates the association between facility-level features and odds of EMTALA citation by hospital-year.

Results

Among 4916 EMTALA-obligated hospitals there were 1925 EMTALA citation events at 1413 facilities between 2005 and 2013, with 4.3% of hospitals cited per year. In adjusted analyses, i

SUBMITTER: Terp S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8630639 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature