Abstract
On April 7, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, which incorporated legislation known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to address the problem of “patient dumping” by hospital emergency departments. Although originally designed to serve as a safety net for emergency patients, the statute grew in both scope and complexity during the following two decades, wreaking widespread confusion within the physician and hospital communities regarding their respective responsibilities under the law.
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References
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68 Federal Register. September 9, 2003: 53255.
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Russell, T.R. (2007). Understanding the Latest Changes in EMTALA: Our Country’s Emergency Care Safety Net. In: Britt, L.D., Trunkey, D.D., Feliciano, D.V. (eds) Acute Care Surgery. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-69012-4_41
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-69012-4_41
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