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Burn center hit with largest EMTALA patient-dumping fine

Case Management Weekly, March 24, 2004

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Burn center hit with largest EMTALA patient-dumping fine
In February, Jackson Memorial Hospital paid the largest fine to date for violating the patient-dumping law.

Jackson Memorial, which has a burn center and other facilities in southern Florida, paid $50,000 to settle its third violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The fine stemmed from an incident in February 2001. Jackson's emergency department decided not to treat a 30-year-old woman who had 15.5% body burns. "Her burn percentage didn't meet our criteria," according to a statement from a physician.

The woman was airlifted to Tampa (FL) General Hospital's burn center. Doctors diagnosed her with 23% body burns. The rise in burn percentage played a part in the case. "They didn't deal with the heat, and experts determined they should have," says Judy Holtz, a staff member in the OIG public affairs office.

The woman's burns to her body and feet met American Burn Association criteria. Jackson told the OIG that it did not want to accept financial responsibility for treating the patient when she did not meet the burn center's criteria. The OIG cited the two reasons for the $50,000 fine:

1. The hospital's failure to accept an appropriate transfer
2. Its two previous violations

The hospital settled the case in February. The violation falls under the patient-dumping section of the Social Security Act (Section 1867). At the time of the settlement, the hospital was under an OIG corporate integrity agreement.

The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) calls for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish an advisory group to address EMTALA regulatory issues. "The group will have some significant influence over the future of regulations in this area," says one HHS staffer.

Editor's note: The $50,000 will go directly to the Medicare Trust Fund.

This story was excerpted from Medicare Reform Advisor. Want to learn more about breaking news from CMS and complete coverage of the Medicare reforms? Subscribe to Medicare Reform Advisor, a new electronic newsletter, sent to your e-mail inbox every Tuesday. For more information, go to http://www.hcmarketplace.com/Prod.cfm?id=2459.

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