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[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5304 Introduced in House (IH)]

106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5304

To require the General Accounting Office to report on the impact of the 
 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) on hospital 
                         emergency departments.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 26, 2000

 Mr. Shadegg introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
  Committee on Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and 
 Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To require the General Accounting Office to report on the impact of the 
 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) on hospital 
                         emergency departments.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Phoenix-Area Hospital and Physician 
Assistance Act of 2000''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act 
        (EMTALA) requires that hospitals and the emergency physicians 
        as well as doctors on call at hospital emergency departments 
        screen and stabilize patients who go to emergency departments 
        for treatment.
            (2) Physicians who refuse to treat emergency department 
        patients or fail to respond to hospital emergency department 
        requests when on call face significant fines and are exposed to 
        liability under EMTALA.
            (3) Estimates indicate that EMTALA costs emergency 
        department physicians $426,000,000 per year and leads to at 
        least $10,000,000,000 more in uncompensated inpatient services.
            (4) Emergency departments, emergency physicians, and 
        physicians covering emergency department call have become the 
        de facto providers of indigent health care in America.
            (5) 27 percent of the over 4,300,000 people living in 
        Arizona are uninsured.
            (6) Many physicians covering emergency department call in 
        Phoenix, Arizona, are resigning from the medical staff at 
        hospitals due to burdensome on-call requirements and 
        uncompensated care.
            (7) Significant concern exists as to whether downtown 
        Phoenix hospitals can keep their emergency departments open.
            (8) The cumulative effect of potential hospital closings 
        and staff resignations threatens the quality of health care in 
        Phoenix, Arizona.

SEC. 3. REPORT ON EFFECT OF EMTATLA.

    (a) Report.--The Comptroller General of the United States shall 
submit a report to the Subcommittee on Health and Environment of the 
Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives by May 1, 2001, 
on the effect of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act 
on hospitals, emergency physicians, and physicians covering emergency 
department call, focusing on those in Phoenix, Arizona.
    (b) Report Requirements.--The report should evaluate--
            (1) the extent to which hospitals, emergency physicians, 
        and physicians covering emergency department call provide 
        uncompensated services in relation to the requirements of 
        EMTALA;
            (2) the extent to which the requirements of EMTALA are 
        having a deleterious effect on the legislation's original 
        intent;
            (3) any possible estimates for the total dollar amount 
        EMTALA-related care costs emergency physicians, physicians 
        covering emergency department call, and hospital emergency 
        department departments;
            (4) the extent to which different portions of the country 
        may be experiencing similar uncompensated EMTALA-related care;
            (5) the extent to which EMTALA would be classified as an 
        unfunded mandate;
            (6) the extent to which States have programs to provide 
        financial support for uncompensated care;
            (7) the extent to which funds under medicare hospital bad 
        debt accounts are available to underwrite the cost of 
        uncompensated EMTALA-related care; and
            (8) the financial strain that illegal immigration 
        populations place on hospital emergency departments.
    (c) Definition.--In this Act, the terms ``Emergency Medical 
Treatment and Active Labor Act'' and ``EMTALA'' mean section 1867 of 
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395dd).
                                 <all>
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