Medicare-certified hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) with emergency departments must follow the federal law and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations and interpretative guidelines on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). This seminar will focus on problematic areas of overall EMTALA concepts, adequacy of medical screening, and on-call physician issues. Fines have more than doubled since 2015 when CMS implemented the inflationary adjustment retroactive to the implementation of the EMTALA regulations.

Learning Objectives:-

Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:

• Describe basic requirements of EMTALA
• Discuss who and where EMTALA applies within the facility
• Describe what constitutes an adequate medical screening exam for behavioral health, obstetric and other, patients
• Describe what constitutes an appropriate certification of false labor
• Define what language must be on required EMTALA signage and where it must be located
• Detail what an appropriate transfer entails and what must be included on the transfer form
• Describe on-call physician rules including scheduling when the on-call physician must appear in the ED.

Agenda:-

• Introduction and Overview
• EMTALA Definitions
• Basics of EMTALA
• Transfers
• Physician Responsibilities
• Deficiency and Fine Examples
• Q&A/Evaluations

Who Should Attend?

CMOs, CNOs, COOs, CFOs, physicians, nurses, ED medical directors, OB managers, behavioral health directors and staff, outpatient directors, compliance officers, legal counsel, risk managers, directors of hospital-based ambulance services, directors of registration and staff, ED education staff, on-call physicians, patient safety officers and joint commission coordinators