Hospitals dump patients, advocacy report says
February 1, 1998 2 minutes read
Hospitals dump patients, advocacy report says
DHHS promises action soon
Nearly 700 hospitals have been guilty of "dumping" patients in recent years, but the federal government hasn’t done much about it, according to a recent report from the public advocacy group Public Citizen in Washington, DC. But a federal official says you should expect an increase in enforcement action.
The federal law against patient dumping went into effect in 1986, and since then the government has confirmed violations at 692 hospitals, the group reports. But only 67 of those hospitals have been fined or dropped from the Medicare system.
"Dumping" usually refers to transferring or turning away patients who can’t pay their emergency department bills, especially if they are unstable at the time. The law says any hospital treating Medicare patients is required to screen every emergency patient without regard to ability to pay, and the patient must be stabilized before being transferred to another facility.
Patient-dumping on the rise
In the past, patients were dumped usually because they had no insurance. With the increase in managed care participation and the effort to cut costs, some patients are now turned away because their managed care plans refuse to pay for the care. Public Citizen notes that the managed care denial often is in error, leading to the dumping of a patient perfectly able to pay for the medical care.
The number of reports of patient dumping has been increasing in recent years, the group says. Between April 1995 and September 1996, 264 patients were dumped from 256 hospitals. Only 26 hospitals and eight doctors were fined.
In a public response to the group’s charges, Judy Holtz, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General, did not dispute Public Citizen’s numbers. She said the government has not had sufficient staff to investigate all the incidents of patient dumping, but Holtz said more staff will be devoted to the issue soon. The number of hospitals punished for patient dumping should go up soon, she says.
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