CS 134: Homeless Epidemic in LA (11/26/2018)

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Today is a D. Mills solo episode discussing homeless epidemic in LA.

Patient Dumping: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights chose to focus on Enforcement of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act for its annual 2014 Statutory Enforcement Report. This report examined compliance with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law that requires Medicare-participating hospitals to treat emergency medical conditions of any person regardless of capacity to pay, and makes unlawful the discharge of patients prior to stabilizing any medical condition. The purpose of EMTALA is to prevent hospitals, states and/or localities from prematurely discharging indigent people in need of emergency care and transporting them to other entities, a practice colloquially called “patient dumping.” Specifically, the Commission’s report focused on disabled individuals with a psychiatric medical condition. The examination resulted in five observations:

• Hospitals are not keeping adequate data on such patients

• There is insufficient regulatory oversight

• There should be non-punitive methods of obtaining accurate treatment reports on patients

• Hospitals do not have sufficient funds to comply with EMTALA in treatment of patients

• Hospitals and their staffs need more training and education in this area

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