Opinion ID: 1822880
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Louisiana Anti-Dumping Statute

Text: In 1980, the Louisiana Legislature enacted La.Rev.Stat. 40:2113.4-2113.6, establishing a statutory duty on the part of certain hospitals to provide emergency services to all persons residing in the territorial area, regardless of whether they are insured or able to pay. Section 2113.4 provides in part: A. Any general hospital licensed under this Part, which is owned or operated, or both, by a hospital service district, which benefits from being financed by the sale of bonds that are exempt from taxation as provided by Louisiana law, or which receives any other type of financial assistance from the state of Louisiana and which offers emergency room services to the public and is actually offering such services at the time, shall make its emergency services available to all persons residing in the territorial area of the hospital regardless of whether the person is covered by private, federal Medicare, or Medicaid, or other insurance. Each person shall receive these services free from discrimination based on race, religion, or national ancestry and from arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable discrimination based on age, sex, or physical condition and economic status. However, in no event shall emergency treatment be denied to anyone on account of inability to pay. Any such hospital found to be in violation of this Section shall not receive any client referrals from the Department of Health and Human Resources. (emphasis added). The purpose of this type of enactment, which had been adopted in several states and by Congress in the Hill-Burton Act, was to override the common law rule that hospitals have no duty to provide emergency treatment. Like the Hill-Burton Act and most other similar state enactments, but unlike EMTALA, the Louisiana anti-dumping statute contains no express private cause of action. [8]