MedicPrincess
Forum Deputy Chief
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EMTALA vs HIPAA, which one do you think has become the bigger-badder monster, that you would do away with if you could be president of the world for just one day? Both were enacted with the best of intentions, however both seem to have balloned into so much more. Over crowded ER's, inaccessability to records, delay in patient care can all be atributed to both of these acts.
So lets review a minute-
EMTALA- originally intended to prevent the "Wallet Triage" before the Patients triage, thus allowing the patients who actually needed emergency help the ability to receive it without having to die at home or on the street because they couldn't afford to walk into the ER. These are the patients that you may find eating dog food because its cheaper than regular food, just so they can pay their ambulance and hospital bills the amounts they have agreed to (I have ran a call to a lady in such a situation).
Now, every TomDickandHarry on the street knows they can go to the ER just because their toe has been hurting for 3 weeks and only now are they out of their Loratab/Vicodin/Oxycontin and they can get it at the ER because we have to see them no matter what, and they don't have to pay the bill because they have already got their drugs so it doesn't matter to them anyway.
HIPAA- now known as the "privacy act" originally intended to allow a person to carry their insurance coverage from one job to the next without having to endure sometimes long and painful "pre-existing conditions" clauses often imposed by the insurance plan offered by a new job.
Now...<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>ITS THE DEVIL!!!!</span> Everything and anything that the government wants to pass having to do with healthcare, that there isn't already a place for gets put under HIPAA.
So, they are both here to stay, to run our shifts by, to live our "career lives" by. The question is, which one do you feel is so far out of control some definite changes could stand to be made.
So lets review a minute-
EMTALA- originally intended to prevent the "Wallet Triage" before the Patients triage, thus allowing the patients who actually needed emergency help the ability to receive it without having to die at home or on the street because they couldn't afford to walk into the ER. These are the patients that you may find eating dog food because its cheaper than regular food, just so they can pay their ambulance and hospital bills the amounts they have agreed to (I have ran a call to a lady in such a situation).
Now, every TomDickandHarry on the street knows they can go to the ER just because their toe has been hurting for 3 weeks and only now are they out of their Loratab/Vicodin/Oxycontin and they can get it at the ER because we have to see them no matter what, and they don't have to pay the bill because they have already got their drugs so it doesn't matter to them anyway.
HIPAA- now known as the "privacy act" originally intended to allow a person to carry their insurance coverage from one job to the next without having to endure sometimes long and painful "pre-existing conditions" clauses often imposed by the insurance plan offered by a new job.
Now...<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>ITS THE DEVIL!!!!</span> Everything and anything that the government wants to pass having to do with healthcare, that there isn't already a place for gets put under HIPAA.
So, they are both here to stay, to run our shifts by, to live our "career lives" by. The question is, which one do you feel is so far out of control some definite changes could stand to be made.
