If a medical staff member reports suspected or alleged EMTALA violations, are they protected by the same Whistleblower provisions of EMTALA as hospital employees? The answer to that question is that they are, according to federal court ruling in Wisconsin in late November.
In the case at hand, Dr. Kamal Muzaffar, sued Aurora Health Care Southern Lakes, Inc., alleging that the hospital system retaliated against him for reporting suspected EMTALA transfer violations. The hospital sought dismissal on the grounds that Muzaffar render on-call services as an independent contract and not as an employee, and as such he was outside the scope of the Whistleblower protections. The statute’s language provides protections to: (1) qualified medical persons or physicians who refuse to authorize a transfer of a patient who has not been stabilized and (2) hospital employees who report violations of EMTALA.
The Court declined to follow employment discrimination distinctions on the rights of contractors versus employees, and instead adopted the reasoning of a S.D Texas EMTALA case that concluded that the purposes of the EMTALA law would be frustrated if hospitals could evade it by applying the strict definitiion of employee status.
Muzaffar v. Aurora Health Care Southern Lakes Inc., No. 13-CV-744 (E.D. Wis. Nov. 27, 2013).
Keep them coming, very helpful for my general knowledge, though I am now a
retired ED physician.
Thanks you, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Jack H., MD.