The guidance says a doctor can’t be prosecuted under state laws when an abortion is necessary as “stabilizing treatment.” While the case is roiling the Missouri political scene, it is also being viewed as a test of how strongly the Biden administration will enforce the July guidance. Under regular procedure, the department would field the complaint and pass it on to CMS to determine whether an investigation is warranted.Ĭox said she cannot release whether the complaint was received through the regular process or if it was received directly by CMS. In Missouri, that is the state health department.
To file complaints, CMS directs the public to their state agency overseeing hospitals. Material provided to The Independent by CMS states that investigations only occur after complaints.Ĭomplaints can be based on “credible information from a variety of sources, which may include media reports, patients, family members, facilities, or staff,” the guidance states. 20 and the investigation was authorized that day. Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for Missouri’s health department, confirmed in an email to The Independent that the complaint was received Oct. But the decision to initiate an investigation and a final say on whether it finds violations is the responsibility of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, also known as CMS. In it, Farmer says she blames Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Valentine’s Republican opponent in Tuesday’s election, for her doctors denying her an emergency abortion.įederal law for investigations makes the state health department the fact-finding agency. Democratic Senate candidate Trudy Busch Valentine started running an ad featuring Farmer on Oct. The highest-profile controversy over Missouri’s law making most abortions illegal is wrapped up in politics of this year’s U.S. “We hope that any investigation into what happened to Mylissa will bring clarity and justice to her and others who live in the state.” “What happened to our client Mylissa is devastating and it shouldn’t happen to anyone in Missouri or any other state,” said Alison Tanner, Farmer’s attorney. After advising her that she would lose the pregnancy before the fetus was viable, her doctor told her he could not perform the abortion.įarmer, on her own, found treatment at a clinic in Granite City, Illinois.
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“I have not filed complaints or initiated any investigation,” Farmer said.Īnd while her attorney says she doesn’t know the origin of the complaint, she hopes the investigation shows what happened internally as the hospital was considering how to handle Farmer’s case.įarmer was almost 18 weeks pregnant when her water broke, according to a Springfield News-Leader article published Oct. The woman who was denied an abortion, Mylissa Farmer of Joplin, told The Independent on Tuesday that she wasn’t the source of the complaint. Investigations are only authorized after a complaint. A hospital that accepts Medicare must provide screening and stabilizing treatments to anyone who seeks care in their emergency departments. The law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, was passed in 1986 to block hospitals from sending patients who could not pay for treatment to other facilities.
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