The U.S. Supreme court says it will clarify when hospitals are liable for
monetary damages to patients claiming they were denied emergency care under
the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA).
   In Roberts v. Galen of Virginia, a Kentucky woman claims a hospital
transferred her prematurely to a nursing home following treatment in an
emergency department after she was hit by a truck on her way home from work
six years ago.
   Supreme Court justices announced June 8 that they would hear the case
during the 1998-99 term, which starts in October. The court expects to make a
ruling by July 1999. This will be the first time the Supreme Court considers a
case involving burden of proof under EMTALA.
   Wanda Y. Johnson, who has no health insurance, suffered extensive injuries
after being struck by truck on May 9, 1992, and was taken to Humana
Hospital-Uni- versity of Louisville. Two months later, she was trans- ferred
to Crestview Health Care Facility in Indianapolis after two other nursing
homes declined to accept her.
   Johnson's health deteriorated quickly the day after she was admitted to
Crestview, and she was rushed to Midwest Medical Center in Indiana. She
remained under treatment there for six months but was denied Medicaid coverage
because she was not an Indiana resident.
   Her aunt, Jane Roberts, filed suit in 1993 seeking damages under the
patient-dumping law. The suit claimed that Humana hospital officials pressured
a social worker to transfer Johnson to a nursing home because she had no
insurance and could not afford to pay her medical expenses.
   A lower court ruled Johnson did not prove the hospital acted with improper
economic motives and her case should fall under state medical malpractice
scrutiny rather than EMTAILA patient-dumping regulations. Fol- lowing a
similar ruling by the 6th Circuit, Johnson appealed to the Supreme Court,
which agreed to hear the case.
--ACEP EM Today, July 1, 1998