UAB Medical West Agreed to Pay $100,000 for Allegedly Violating Patient Dumping Statue by Failing to Provide Stabilizing Treatment

On July 10, 2025, UAB Medical West, Birmingham, Alabama, entered into a $100,000 settlement agreement with OIG. The settlement agreement resolves allegations that UAB Medical West violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Based on its investigation, OIG concluded that in May 2023, UAB Medical West failed to provide stabilizing treatment to a patient who presented to UAB Medical West’s freestanding Emergency Department (ED). Specifically, UAB Medical West diagnosed the patient with the emergency medical condition of acute urinary retention. UAB Medical West’s ED staff were unsuccessful in their attempts to catheterize the patient and failed to provide any pain relief. Although UAB Medical West had a urologist on-call for the freestanding ED, and access to specialized urology supplies at its main ED, UAB Medical West discharged the patient with instructions to drive himself to a different medical facility for a urology consultation and stabilizing treatment.