October 4, 2004

CMS: HOSPITALS WON'T HAVE TO ASK IMMIGRATION STATUS

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mark McClellan late Friday said in a letter to AHA President Dick Davidson that "providers will not be asked - and should not ask - about a patient's citizenship status in order to receive payment" under Section 1011 of the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA). The MMA includes $250 million per year for the next four years to help hospitals offset the cost of caring for undocumented immigrants in the emergency department (ED), as required under EMTALA. Under CMS' proposed implementation plan, hospitals would have been required to ask the immigration status of patients seeking care in the ED. The AHA and state hospital associations lobbied CMS during the public comment period that hospital employees were caregivers and not border patrol agents, and that patients who needed care might not seek it if they knew they would have to divulge their immigration status. We're pleased that CMS addressed our concerns. Stay tuned for final guidance from CMS, expected later today.

Click here to read the letter.

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