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CMS releases final EMTALA rule

Healthcare Auditing Weekly, September 9, 2003

On November 10, hospitals must start complying with the revised rules involving the care of patients who request treatment for emergency medical conditions. The rules fall under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).

The final rule has several key provisions and changes to the old EMTALA regulations, including the following:

• Clarification of the circumstances in which physicians, particularly specialty physicians, must serve on hospital medical staff "on-call" lists
• Clarification that hospital-owned ambulances may comply with citywide and local community protocols for responding to medical emergencies
• Permits hospitals departments that are off-campus to provide the most effective way of caring for emergency patients without requiring that the patient be moved to the main campus

Before you can audit your organization's compliance with EMTALA, you must research the EMTALA requirements by comparing all of your organization's policies and procedures for EMTALA compliance to the EMTALA regulations.

To find out what the final EMTALA rule means for your organization, join us on September 30 for "EMTALA Final Rule: New Strategies for Compliance." We'll present a 90-minute live program, with a generous block of time reserved to answer your questions. Just click here to sign up.

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