Fixing EMTALA: What's wrong with the Patient Transfer Act

Congress primarily enacted the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) in 1986 to prevent the denial of care to uninsured patients i n emergency departments. The final version of EMTALA lacks specific protect ion for indigent patients and saddles hospitals and physicians with more li ability than Congress initially intended. Loopholes in the law allow denial of care to patients when temporarily stabilized. Congress should ameliorat e these problems through amendment of the law.