Montejo v. Martin Mem’l Med. Ctr.

Undocumented Aliens

Montejo v. Martin Mem’l Med. Ctr., Inc., No. 4D03-2638
(Fla. Dist. Ct. App. May 5, 2004)

The
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District, reversed the ruling of
a lower court, and held that a hospital should not have been permitted to discharge
an indigent illegal alien from the hospital and transport him to Guatemala,
his country of origin.

In this case, the patient was an undocumented alien who was
injured while working in Florida. He was admitted to a local hospital where
he was provided over $1 million of care. Because he was an illegal alien, the
patient was not eligible for Medicaid or other public assistance. Therefore,
the hospital received only $80,000 of reimbursement, paid by Medicaid for emergency
care, for the services it provided.

By the end of 2001, the patient was ready to be transferred
to the next level of service, for "traumatic brain injury rehabilitation."
However, no Florida facilities would accept the patient, due to his inability
to pay. Therefore, the hospital filed a petition seeking court approval to discharge
the patient so that he could be transferred to a hospital in Guatemala. In support
of its petition, the hospital submitted a letter from the Vice Minister of Public
Health in Guatemala, which stated that the patient would be accepted by the
Guatemalan health system, at no cost to him, for evaluation and transfer to
the most appropriate facility for treatment of his condition. An expert on the
Guatemalan public health care system testified, however, that there are no public
healthcare facilities in Guatemala that provide traumatic brain injury rehabilitation.
Nevertheless, over the guardian’s objections, the lower court authorized the
discharge and transfer.

The District Court of Appeal of Florida overturned the lower
court’s ruling, finding that there was not substantial evidence to support the
patient’s discharge from the hospital since the hospital had not demonstrated
that the patient would be transferred to an appropriate level of care (i.e.,
traumatic brain injury rehabilitation). Also, the court held that the trial
court lacked the jurisdiction to authorize the transportation (deportation)
of the patient to Guatemala.