Recent news surfaced about a hospital in Redding, California, where allegations suspect it of violating rules regarding patient dumping.

State and federal health care officials are investigating Mercy Medical Center in Redding for possible violations of a national anti-patient-dumping law.

“We authorized an inspection at the hospital under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act,” said Jack Cheevers, a San Francisco-based spokesman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). “It’s basically an anti-patient-dumping law.”

Patient dumping was ruled illegal by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986, whereby for-profit hospitals would not be allowed to release patients to public hospitals simply because they couldn’t pay. For-profit hospitals are required to screen and stabilize patients before transferring care. When patient dumping does occur, as may be the case with Mercy Medical Center, this is often due to a lack of sufficient resources to handle an increase in emergency room visits, promulgated by the closure of nearby hospitals or due to new insurance policy procedures.

There are several underlying issues that highlight the dire case where patient dumping occurs:

1) Hospitals cannot provide care. The medical infrastructure is unable to support an increase in patient number, or because of draconian insurance policies that force those who are insured to decide which hospital to go to depending on how they are covered.

2) Patients cannot pay. The business nature of medical care detracts from access to adequate healthcare as a right and instead makes it an option available only for those who can afford it.

3) Patients become entities. Because patients either can or cannot pay, they become commodities rather than human beings in need of care. Hence if they cannot pay, they need to resort to stemming any financial loss and dumping them, regardless of ethical or moral responsibility.

As emergency medical professionals, sometimes we are put into the position of suggesting hospital care that is against the patient’s wishes, simply because of medical command or resources (such as trauma) that require a higher-level center. What can be helpful is putting that issue into perspective when charging for medical transportation - some areas provide ambulatory transportation at no cost.

Have you dealt with patient dumping issues?

In the video below, Anderson Cooper’s 360 show on CNN investigates patient dumping on Skid Row, in Los Angeles, California.

Categories: Columns, Video
Tags: