Health Care BS

Thanks to Kevin, MD for bringing Aggravated DocSurg to my attention. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is indeed an unfunded mandate for providers, including hospitals. It also renders profoundly ironic the calls for “universal” health care that continuously emanate from the mass media and various Washington demagogues.

For the untutored, EMTALA requires hospitals to provide care to all patients who seek treatment in their emergency rooms–regardless of ability to pay. So, if patients were ever in the past denied care for lack of money (something I’ve never actually seen in my years in the hospital biz—and I’m the heartless money guy), the idea that it happens to anyone now is nonsense. Thus, we already have “universal” health care of a sort.

This wouldn’t be all bad if EMTALA contained some provision for defraying the costs incurred by the providers. For hospitals, there is some (minor) relief through DSH (although our masters at CMS are making ominous noises about cutting that threadbare lifeline), but there is no help at all for the docs.

So, Congresswoman Bono’s legislation is a positive, not only to the extent that some providers could actually receive a tax break related to uncompensated care, but also as a sign that someone actually understands there’s a problem.