Enforcing proposed rules against insurance company misbehavior

[eridani]

The rules would probably cut down on bad behavior, but given the fact that patient dumping has been illegal since 1986, and yet patient dumping still goes on, I'd predict that there will stil be plenty of abuses by private insurers. The article below only notes the hospitals that have been caught at it.

Thinking on Larry Gonick's footnote on the Romans in The Cartoon History of the Universe, "How many languages even HAVE a word that means "kill every 10th person"? What kind of society are we that can even conceptualize something like "patient dumping"?

http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2009/01/hlaw1-0901.html

Despite these statutes and penalties, hospitals have continued turning patients away. From 1996 to 2000, the watchdog organization Public Citizen confirmed violations from 527 hospitals in 46 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico <10>. Of the 527 hospitals, 117 had violated the act more than once, and for-profit hospitals were significantly more likely to do so <10>.

EMTALA's inability to curb denial of treatment has been attributed to the ambiguity of the statutory provisions, poor enforcement mechanisms, and divergent judicial interpretations of the statutory provisions. A 2001 Office of the Inspector General (OIG) study revealed that emergency-care personnel and hospital staff are often unaware of EMTALA provisions and policy changes, and, even when they are aware, there is uncertainty about the proper interpretation and application of the provisions <11>. Furthermore, most emergency personnel do not receive EMTALA guidelines <11>.

[eridani]

1. Kick for Friday evening n/t