Double Jeopardy

Some hospitals in Los Angeles County are turning away rape victims because the hospitals lose money when they examine them. That is an outrageous step away from a recent trend toward more compassionate care of rape victims. Sacramento must take prompt action to correct the causes of the disgraceful lapse.

A Times survey of about 40 privately owned hospitals revealed that one-third of them routinely send rape victims elsewhere for examination and treatment. This means that the victims, already in distress, often wait hours to see a doctor.

Officials in Sacramento caused the problem by combining a more extensive and more expensive set of medical procedures designed to collect stronger evidence for prosecuting rapists with a refusal to help pay the higher cost. To save money, some hospitals use a loophole in the regulations written under a 1985 state law that allows them to refer cases to other hospitals if they say that they cannot follow the examination guidelines. The law also affects child sex-abuse cases.

An examination following new procedures costs $350 to $450, of which the Los Angeles Police Department will pay less than $20 and other law agencies only slightly more. Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), president pro tem of the California Senate, plans hearings into the denial of treatment that will include a search for money to support the new guidelines. The Victims’ Compensation Act is one potential source. Hospitals themselves might be asked to contribute if local law-enforcement agencies cannot find the money.

Finding funds should be only one task of the Roberti hearings. They should also address whether it is ethical for hospitals to turn away victims of a crime that involves bodily harm. There may also be questions of law. The new regulations expressly say that when hospitals refer sex-abuse victims elsewhere they must notify the hospitals, law-enforcement agencies and victims’-assistance groups. Gail Abarbanel of the Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center says that her center has received no such notices and yet is caring for victims who have been refused treatment elsewhere. If one of the region’s leading centers was not notified, the district attorney might question whether notices are given at all.

More than 4,000 rape cases were reported last year in Los Angeles County. The new rules say that counties need have only one hospital qualified to make rape examinations per million people. Los Angeles could meet that criterion with just eight hospitals; given the number of rapes and the size of the county, the condition is cruelly inadequate and should be changed.

Because so much is at stake, hospitals must open their doors during the time that it takes to correct the problems. It would be too grotesque if regulations that were designed to make it easier to punish those guilty of rape and child sex abuse resulted in punishing their victims instead.