On February 2, 2012, CMS published a request for comments on the applicability of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) to hospital inpatients. Current EMTALA rules provide that when an individual comes to a hospital’s emergency department, and the hospital provides an appropriate medical screening examination and determines that an emergency medical condition (EMC) exists, and then admits the individual in good faith in order to stabilize the EMC, that admitting hospital has satisfied its EMTALA obligation towards that patient. Further, under current EMTALA rules, if the admitted inpatient continues to have an unstabilized EMC that requires the specialized capabilities of another hospital, the hospital with specialized capabilities also does not have an EMTALA obligation towards that individual. CMS notes that “there continues to be a range of opinions, even at the Federal circuit court level, on the topic of EMTALA’s application to inpatients.” Nevertheless, CMS stated that it is not proposing changes in current policies at this time. However, the agency has indicated that it will continue to monitor whether it may be appropriate in the future to reconsider its policies regarding the applicability of EMTALA to hospitals with specialized capabilities, and has invited “the public to submit data or real world examples that are relevant to this issue.” Comments will be accepted until April 2, 2012.