RIGHT TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL CARE

Regardless of your insurance status, you are eligible to receive emergency medical care within the State of California. You have the right to receive emergency care at any licensed facility with an emergency room. You have the right to be treated until your emergency medical condition is stabilized when you go to a hospital emergency room. You have the right to be informed by the hospital of your right to receive emergency services, without regard to your ability to pay, prior to being transferred or discharged from that facility. You have a right not be transferred from an emergency care facility against your will.

These rights are important to know if you ever find yourself in a hospital emergency room. No matter of your insurance status, California law strictly regulates the ability of all licensed health care facilities with emergency rooms. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act regulations also apply to all hospitals that participate in the medicare program.

Under California law, your health plan must reimburse any doctor who performs any emergency services that you receive to stabilized you. The only time that a plan is not required to pay for your emergency health care services is when it determines that you did not require emergency services, and that you should have known that an emergency did not exist. Hospitals are also required to post these rights with respect to the emergency room and your treatment options.

If you have complaints regarding substandard emergency medical care and treatment, or treatment provided by physicians of any other specialty, please contact Heiting & Irwin for a free initial consultation. We prosecute medical negligence claims, as well as other injury actions, confidently and aggressively on behalf of our clients.