An email spam message concerning alleged restrictions on patient care under the new Affordable Care Act has been circulating widely in recent days. The email is a variation of a discredited Internet hoax that apparently has been making the rounds in several parts of the country for a number of months.
The hoax email describes an alleged visit to Emory by the country's "Department of Health," informing physicians that under the Affordable Care Act they will be prohibited from operating on anyone over age 70 without first having approval from a board of eight doctors.
Emory University has no information about where this hoax originated, but it is completely false. No government agency representatives have visited Emory or met with physicians to discuss physician and patient restrictions under the Affordable Care Act. Nor have there been any discussions between any of our physicians and anyone from any government agency about withholding care from patients.
There is additional information about several variations of this false report at the website snopes.com, an Internet reference source that investigates misinformation: