# Medical Care for Immigrants, Refugees and Visitors



## mycrofft (May 2, 2011)

If you were treating a possibly seriously sick or injured person and it was established he/she was not a taxpaying American citizen, would you continue care?
What if it was the law NOT to furnish care? (What if you lived in Tucson, Phoenix, or Camp Verde, AZ?).
Would you even help establish what their citizenship status was?




OOPS failed to post poll. Oh well, press on.


----------



## Veneficus (May 2, 2011)

mycrofft said:


> If you were treating a possibly seriously sick or injured person and it was established he/she was not a taxpaying American citizen, would you continue care?
> What if it was the law NOT to furnish care? (What if you lived in Tucson, Phoenix, or Camp Verde, AZ?).
> Would you even help establish what their citizenship status was?
> 
> ...



I would continue to treat everyone to the very best of my ability. Doing all I could in order to not only provide the best care I could, but also to secure the resources and preserve the ability to offer the best that is possible.

I recognise no categorical distinctions in helping those seeking help in any nation or from any origin.


----------



## usalsfyre (May 2, 2011)

Immigration status means nothing to me in terms of medicine. I support efforts to keep our borders secure, but once a patient/provider relationship is established, nothing outside of safety or physical assault on the provider relieves that responsibility.


----------



## ffemt8978 (May 2, 2011)

mycrofft said:


> If you were treating a possibly seriously sick or injured person and it was established he/she was not a taxpaying American citizen, would you continue care?
> What if it was the law NOT to furnish care? (What if you lived in Tucson, Phoenix, or Camp Verde, AZ?).
> Would you even help establish what their citizenship status was?
> 
> ...



Yep, we do it every day here.  Non-citizens outnumber citizens by about 2 to 1 in this area.  Citizenship papers are not necessary for me to treat my patients, so I don't care about them unless the patient recently traveled internationally.


----------



## MMiz (May 2, 2011)

A patient's ability to pay or socioeconomic status has no impact on my decision to create or the level of care I provide a patient.

Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss, and fortunately I know almost nothing about ambulance billing.


----------



## usalsfyre (May 2, 2011)

MMiz said:


> Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss, and fortunately I know almost nothing about ambulance billing.


Understanding payment structure is absolutely vital to understanding system design issues and how the profession can advance and show value vs what's killing it now. That's why I recommend everyone learn at least the basics. It's rarely needed to understand the care we currently provide, though.


----------



## bigbaldguy (May 2, 2011)

Nothing, with the possible exception of imminent physical harm would stop me from rendering aid to a person who truly needed it.


----------



## medicdan (May 2, 2011)

usalsfyre said:


> Understanding payment structure is absolutely vital to understanding system design issues and how the profession can advance and show value vs what's killing it now. That's why I recommend everyone learn at least the basics. It's rarely needed to understand the care we currently provide, though.



I absolutely agree. However, despite the fact I have a strong understanding of payment structures, when working in EMS, I believe I have an ethical responsibility to provide whatever care is necessary, without asking questions.

Despite the fact EMTALA is a terribly planned and funded piece of legislation, I believe the spirit of the law reigns true to EMS as well. This of course, applies to true emergency situations as well. 

I'll ask a separate question: Do you think it's ethical to transport those who we believe to be without insurance or citizenship to specific facilities only-- to focus the freecare? Do we have an ethical responsibility to channel those with urgent, but not emergent conditions to community clinics, community health centers or urgent care?


----------



## usalsfyre (May 2, 2011)

emt.dan said:


> I'll ask a separate question: Do you think it's ethical to transport those who we believe to be without insurance or citizenship to specific facilities only-- to focus the freecare? Do we have an ethical responsibility to channel those with urgent, but not emergent conditions to community clinics, community health centers or urgent care?


Ethical? Probably. Legal? No, thanks to that wonderfully unfunded mandate known as EMTALA and the current "have it your way" model of medical care practiced in the US. Until there's regulatory changes these two will remain at odds.


----------



## MrBrown (May 3, 2011)

Well seeing as how Brown is a funny piece of green slime oozing foreign fruit that sometimes gets paroled into the United States please do not treat Brown if required, unless you are a Firemedic from Houston or Los Angeles.

Brown will treat anybody.


----------



## mycrofft (May 3, 2011)

*Our county directed its medical people not to treat "undocumented aliens". HAH!*

Like we followed THAT order. Besides being unethical, it is probably illegal and certainly a good basis for a civil suit. They forced out several administrators who were also health professionals because they would not play their denial game.


----------



## Handsome Robb (May 3, 2011)

It doesn't matter whether your green, brown, black, yellow, orange, purple, pink or any other random color. There are three natural rights given to you, *LIFE*, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in the U.S. at least. Medical care, in my opinion, would fall under the category of life. Who am I to strip that right from you?

Like others said, the only time I would stop providing care would be a direct threat to the safety of my partner or myself.


----------



## fortsmithman (May 15, 2011)

It should not matter what their immigration status is.


----------



## shfd739 (May 15, 2011)

We treat everyone the same and to the best that we can. 

If we find out later they are a noncitizen the bill is written off. For the most part we don't know until we've dropped off at the hospital when obtaining their demographics.


----------



## usafmedic45 (May 15, 2011)

fortsmithman said:


> It should not matter what their immigration status is.



Stabilize them, treat them while in custody and then deport there butts if they are here illegally even if you have to put them on an air ambulance to do it.


----------

