I
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 Com-
mittee 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 jurisdic-
tion 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 depart-
ments.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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 Ac-
tive 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 physi-
cians, and physicians covering emergency depart-
ment call have become the de facto providers of indi-
gent health care in America.
(5) 27 percent of the over 4,300,000 people liv-
ing in Arizona are uninsured.
(6) Many physicians covering emergency de-
partment call in Phoenix, Arizona, are resigning
from the medical staff at hospitals due to burden-
some on-call requirements and uncompensated care.
(7) Significant concern exists as to whether
downtown Phoenix hospitals can keep their emer-
gency 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 Com-
merce 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 de-
partment call provide uncompensated services in re-
lation to the requirements of EMTALA;
(2) the extent to which the requirements of
EMTALA are having a deleterious effect on the leg-
islation’s original intent;
(3) any possible estimates for the total dollar
amount EMTALA-related care costs emergency phy-
sicians, physicians covering emergency department
call, and hospital emergency department depart-
ments;
(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 under-
write the cost of uncompensated EMTALA-related
care; and
(8) the financial strain that illegal immigration
populations place on hospital emergency depart-
ments.
(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).
Æ