Patient dumping in the hospital emergency department: renewed interest in an old problem.

Alarm about the adverse effects of transferring emergency patients for economic reasons has resulted in federal legislation aimed at curbing the practice. We review the history of common law hospital liability for denial of emergency care and analyze the federal legislation designed to restrict the transfer of medically indigent patients with emergency problems. We conclude that the currently proposed solutions to patient dumping will have limited effectiveness without more specific incentives for the provision of health care to the medically indigent.