Merit Health Central Hospital Agreed to Pay $350,000 for Allegedly Violating Patient Dumping Statute by Failing to Provide Adequate Medical Screening Examinations and Stabilizing Treatment

On July 1, 2026, Merit Health Central Hospital f/k/a Central Mississippi Medical Center (Merit), Jackson, Mississippi, entered into a $350,000 settlement agreement with OIG. The settlement agreement resolves allegations that Merit violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Based on its investigation, OIG concluded that Merit failed to provide an adequate medical screening examination and/or stabilizing treatment to fourteen individuals who presented to Merit's ED between January 2013 and April 2015 requesting evaluation and treatment for a medical condition. In nine of these incidents, the individual presented to Merit’s ED with an emergency medical condition and Merit transferred the individual to another hospital without providing, within the staff and facilities available to it (including on-call surgeons or specialists), further medical examination and treatment required to stabilize the individual’s condition or to minimize the risks for transfer. Merit transferred six of these individuals based on its application of Central MS Trauma Region Trauma Activation Criteria and Destination Guidelines for the transfer of individuals with penetrating trauma to another hospital. These incidents involved presentments to Merit’s ED between January 2013 and May 2013.

In another four instances, individuals presented to Merit’s ED with a psychiatric emergency medical condition. In each of these incidents, Merit failed to provide an appropriate medical screening within its capabilities to determine if the individual had an emergency medical condition, and to provide, within the staff and facilities available to Merit (including on-call psychiatrists), further medical examination and treatment required to stabilize the individual’s condition. Each of these four individuals was transferred by taxi in an unstable condition to a homeless day shelter. These incidents involved a presentment to Merit’s ED in March 2015 and April 2015.

In the last of the fourteen instances referred to above, an individual presented to Merit’s ED in March 2015 for treatment related to his end-stage renal disease. The individual was experiencing an emergency medical condition that required dialysis. Merit did not provide this available stabilizing treatment.