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Emergency Room Requirements Eased

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) Sept 03 - The Bush administration said on Wednesday it

was easing rules that require hospitals to provide emergency care to anyone who

seeks it.

The revisions, sought by the hospital industry, reduce a hospital's liability

for treating emergency patients and would make it easier for a facility to

turn away patients.

More than 40 million Americans lack health insurance, and many of these

uninsured use emergency facilities. Emergency room staff say they often cannot

handle the influx and cannot provide proper care.

The changes, which take effect in November and require no congressional

approval, affect the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).

This measure requires any hospital taking part in Medicare--the federal

health care insurance program for the elderly and the disabled--to provide

" appropriate medical screening " to anyone showing up for treatment at an

emergency

room.

On pain of a $50,000 fine and suspension from Medicare, the hospitals must

also stabilize the patient or transfer the patient to a clinic or hospital that

can do so.

Hospitals say the rules have burdened their emergency departments with poor

and uninsured patients seeking care for everyday conditions. Many have closed

emergency facilities in recent years.

The change eases some of the restrictions, said the Centers for Medicare &

Medicaid Services (CMS), a branch of the Health and Human Services Department

that is responsible for the rule.

" The regulation we are announcing today carries out EMTALA in a common-sense

and effective way to ensure that people who come to hospitals seeking

emergency care are promptly screened and stabilized, " CMS Administrator Tom

Scully

said in a statement.

" The rule will improve people's access to emergency care by encouraging

physicians to be on call and by permitting hospitals to take the most effective

steps for getting emergency treatment for patients who need it. "

For instance, the rule will allow hospitals more flexibility in keeping

doctors on call.

" In keeping with traditional practices of 'community call,' physicians will

be permitted to be on call simultaneously at more than one hospital, and to

schedule elective surgery or other medical procedures during on-call times, "

said

CMS.

It will also allow ambulances to take patients to a variety of hospitals or

clinics.

" One example is an ambulance owned by a hospital, " White House spokesman

McClellan told reporters. " The regulations would no longer require that

ambulance to return to that hospital if there is a closer emergency room that

that

ambulance could go to. "

Reuters Health Information 2003. © 2003 Reuters Ltd.