U.S. Health Care Question

[MichaelQReilly]

I’ve gotten roped into writing a policy statement for an organization I do some pro bono work for. I’m trying to find out how much cost gets passed on to insured patients due to treatment of uninsured patients at emergency rooms under EMTALA. I’ve been searching the Kaiser Family Fund’s site all morning and have yet to find anything good. Can anybody help me out?

[Harriet_the_Spry]

Had you run across this yet?

http://www.hpolicy.duke.edu/cyberexchange/Regulate/CHSR/HTMLs/F1-EMTALA.htm

This is their estimate of net costs and benefits “All told, EMTALA results in expected costs of $4.4 billion ($1.3, $11.0) and expected benefits of $2.1 billion ($0.4, $4.9).” The bibliography might also point you toward other useful resources. I’ll be surprised if a direct answer to your specific question exists. It seems like the net costs of EMTALA would be an upper bound, though.

[MichaelQReilly]

@Harriet_the_Spry

Had you run across this yet?

http://www.hpolicy.duke.edu/cyberexchange/Regulate/CHSR/HTMLs/F1-EMTALA.htm

This is their estimate of net costs and benefits “All told, EMTALA results in expected costs of $4.4 billion ($1.3, $11.0) and expected benefits of $2.1 billion ($0.4, $4.9).” The bibliography might also point you toward other useful resources. I’ll be surprised if a direct answer to your specific question exists. It seems like the net costs of EMTALA would be an upper bound, though.

I hadn’t seen that one yet, thanks.