CMS Requests Comments on EMTALA’s Applicability to Inpatients

Although it is not currently making any proposals to expand the applicability of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) to inpatients, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a request for comments on the topic in the February 2, 2012, Federal Register. In the request, CMS details the regulatory history of EMTALA’s application to inpatients and reiterates its current position that a hospital that admits a patient from the emergency department (ED) as part of a good-faith effort to stabilize an identified emergency medication condition has fulfilled its EMTALA obligations.