Can a hospital refuse to give proper treatment to individuals who don't have insurance?

Question

Is this legal for all hospitals or just some?

Where can I find this information besides digging for it at a library? Is it anywhere online?

Answer 1

The law states:

"You are entitled by law to a proper medical screening and necessary stabilizing treatment for you and an unborn child if you are ill, injured or are in labor, regardless of ability to pay. This may include transfer to an appropriate facility."

That is the sign on the wall in the waiting room of the ER I work at.

So...a hospital must provide initial treatment and stabilize you. However, if it is a private hospital, they can have you transferred to a public facility if you do not have insurance or state assistance. If you are transferred, you have the right to a medical transport (by ambulance) if your condition warrants it.

Private hospital do not usually receive grants from the government. They are "for profit". The vast majority of patients at these facilities are insured. Public hospitals rely on grants to provide care. Many public hospitals are in financial difficulty due to the number of uninsured patients they see who are not able to pay hospital bills.

EMT

Answer 2

They cannot refuse to give emergency and life saving treatment. Many will actually go above the minimum required. This is becuase no insurance does not mean no way to pay. They will still send a bill and may be able to recover some payment. Also, in some states hospitals are required to perform a certain level of charity care so they see it as an unavoidable cost of doing business. Plus, if they give someone without insurance shoddy or minimal care, the chances are that person will be back at the same hospital later with a more serious condition. Proper treatment initially saves the hospital money.

Answer 3

Ok here is the deal on that. If you go to the E.R., and you have an emergency like a broke arm, heart attack, or any life threating event that is immediate, they have to treat you by law. However, if you have cancer for instant, and the the danger is there but not life threating until 1.5 years from now they do not have to treat you unless you have insurance. That is what people do not understand. All hospitals are this way.,

Accept the burn center for the Shrinners, their work is free to kids that have bad burns, they are national, and run off donations

Answer 4

Yes, they can refuse to give any treatment. I was escorted from the E.R., with a broken arm, at a hospital in California because I wasn't a "member" and didn't arrive in an ambulance.

Answer 5

A hospital should give emergency, life-or-death-situation care regardless.....however, there are private hospitals who can deny you care...a state funded hospital must provide care...whether you have insurance or not. There is a difference in private and state-funded. You would do well to know which ones are which, in your area.

Answer 6

Private hospitals are not required to treat anyone (not ALL hospitals receive federal grant money); public hospital are only for immediate, emergency care, nothing else.

Answer 7

NO,because all hospitals receive federal grants and are therefore required to assist regardless! If any hospital refused to treat they would be violating the good Samaritan law and can be charged accordingly!

Answer 8

A hospital must treat an emergency, but they can refuse preventive care.

Answer 9

Yep, they find their way around it...they'll treat you for an emergency or if you are dying, but that's about it. They find their way out of paying for anything else.