Doctors, hospitals fight new rules for ER visits
Feb 8, 2012, 9:00 AM | Updated: 12:57 pm
The state Health Care Authority says medical providers would be responsible to absorb the bill if the state decides even one visit was a non-emergency. (97.3 KIRO FM Photo/File)
(97.3 KIRO FM Photo/File)
Doctors and hospitals are upset over new state Medicaid rules that prohibit even a single emergency room visit for a treatment deemed not an emergency.
A court blocked a previous money-saving plan to limit the number of non-emergency ER visits for poor patients to three. But under the new rules, there are fewer conditions considered non-emergency.
The state Health Care Authority says medical providers would be responsible to absorb the bill if the state decides even one visit was a non-emergency.
ER doctors say they don’t like bureaucrats deciding what is an emergency. A statement from the Washington chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians claims the state Health Care Authority is “distorting the issue to deny care to people with real emergencies.”
The Washington State Medical Association and the Washington State Hospital Association are joining forces to ask state lawmakers to stop the plan and find another way to save about $33 million.
The new emergency room reimbursement rules take effect April first.
