Abstract
The public tax-supported hospitals of this country were established primarily to ensure access to a decent minimum of health care for the poor. Unless and until a system is substituted whereby medical care to the poor in private hospitals is compensated by tax dollars, it is inevitable that indigent patients will be transferred from private to public institutions for financial reasons. The increasingly competitive financial climate of private health care and the inability of private hospitals any longer to shift the costs of uncompensated care to paying patients have resulted in dramatic increases in the numbers of patients transferred to public hospitals in recent years. To make the best of this situation, transfer policies designed to safeguard the patient's welfare have been implemented<sup>1</sup>; compliance is variable but, in general, most parties involved follow the rules. But should this practice be permitted when the patient is in an unstable condition and
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
