Navigating EMTALA Rules
Compliance Perspectives: Healthcare Compliance at the Border
I. Key Takeaways - Federal enforcement under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) may be changing after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rescinded guidance issued under the Biden...more
Below is Alston & Bird’s Health Care Week in Review, which provides a synopsis of the latest news in health care regulations, notices, and guidance; federal legislation and congressional committee action; reports, studies,...more
On August 13, 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and its Center for Clinical Standards and Quality / Quality, Safety & Oversight Group issued its memorandum QSO-24-17-EMTALA (the “Memorandum”),...more
On June 27, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Idaho v. United States on procedural grounds and sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit. By doing so, the Supreme Court reinstated the preliminary injunction issued by the...more
Almost 40 years after its passing, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) remains not only a key consideration for hospitals with emergency departments, but also a significant federal enforcement...more
On May 21, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new option on CMS.gov to allow individuals to more easily file an Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) complaint. Before launching the...more
CMS’s New Actions Related to EMTALA - On January 22, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that, through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), it will launch a comprehensive plan...more
On May 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced investigations into two hospitals that did not provide necessary stabilizing treatment to a pregnant individual experiencing an emergency medical...more
On April 17, 2023, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to modify the Standards for Privacy for Individually Identifiable...more
On May 1, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) announced two investigations of hospitals that failed to offer necessary stabilizing care to a pregnant individual experiencing an emergency medical...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (Proposed Rule) on April 12, 2023, proposing amendments to the Health Insurance Portability and...more
As states enact and enforce various laws restricting, prohibiting, and even criminalizing abortion and other reproductive health care services, HIPAA rules that allow disclosure of patient information become potential privacy...more
On 10 March 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (the DOJ) appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals an amended final decision by the Northern District of Texas (the Texas District Court) that struck down U.S. Department...more
The terms clinically stable and stable for transfer are frequently used by and familiar to emergency department and hospital staff. When it comes to compliance with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) in...more
On January 30, 2023, President Biden announced that both the COVID-19 national emergency and the public health emergency (PHE) will end May 11, 2023. This announcement has left many healthcare providers considering how the...more
In recent months, decisions and laws limiting abortion rights in the United States have forced health care providers that serve pregnant women to keep abreast of quickly changing legal restrictions affecting their...more
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals with emergency departments and participating in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) programs to provide medical screening, treatment and...more
Federal litigation was in the spotlight last week with two major decisions related to the Biden-Harris administration’s Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) guidance on providing abortion services as emergency...more
In eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion, the United States Supreme Court’s July 24, 2022 decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, returned the question of abortion regulation to the “people...more
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, one federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), has become a focal point in the Biden administration’s efforts to challenge state attempts to restrict...more
HHS released guidance on July 11, 2022, stating that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)—which requires hospitals and physicians to provide emergency medical treatment when an emergency medical...more
On July 11, 2022, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, issued a letter to hospitals stating that the Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires physicians and...more
The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“Secretary”) issued a letter to healthcare providers ("Letter") and associated guidance on July 11, 2022, reminding applicable providers of their EMTALA...more
On Monday, July 11, 2022, the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a letter to healthcare providers regarding the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), indicating that when a state law...more