Tip of the week: Familiarize yourself with EMTALA changes

On July 16, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a series of revisions to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) that gives hospitals clear guidance during local and national emergencies. Hospitals can now avoid sanctions for:
 

• “Redirecting an individual who comes to the emergency department…to an alternate location for a medical screening examination pursuant to a state emergency preparedness plan, or as applicable, a state pandemic preparedness plan.”
• “Inappropriately transferring an individual protected by EMTALA, when the transfer is necessitated by the circumstances of the declared emergencies.”
   

Although the hospital’s risk manager will likely be the one most interested in the EMTALA changes, medical staff leaders should be aware of them, too. “The medical staff has heavy responsibility in formulating their local emergency plan,” says Stephen Frew, JD, vice president of risk management at Johnson Insurance in Madison, WI. “They have to understand that while there is an EMTALA waiver in place, it doesn’t do away with EMTALA completely.”

Medical staff leaders should participate in the design of the local emergency preparedness plan and champion disaster drills.

This week’s tip is from “CMS tweaks EMTALA to give hospitals leeway during emergencies and reduce paperwork” in the September issue of Credentialing & Peer Review Legal Insider (subscription required).