CMS Launches New Option for Filing EMTALA Complaints on CMS.gov

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have launched a “new option on CMS.gov to allow individuals to more easily file an Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) complaint.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra lauded this step as way to “uphold the law and the right to emergency care, to inform people of their rights under EMTALA, and to make it easier for someone denied care to file a complaint.” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure stressed the importance of an individual who “believes their EMTALA rights have been violated” to be able to easily file a complaint.

Federal laws under EMTALA require Medicare-participating hospitals to “provide medical screening exams for individuals arriving at hospital emergency departments to determine if the person has an emergency medical condition. If an emergency medical condition is confirmed, hospitals must provide stabilizing medical treatment (or, if unable to stabilize the person within its capability, to appropriately transfer the patient).”