There is little doubt that there are societal costs associated with illegal immigration. One significant portion of those costs comes from medical care—especially emergency and catastrophic care—provided to people who are not supposed to be in this country in the first place. It is easy to sympathize with beleaguered health care providers when they find that they are unable to move patients out of their facilities and simultaneously unable to secure Medicaid or other government reimbursement for the care they provide. Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart, Florida, however, may have gone too far in its efforts to control the costs of caring for one undocumented patient.

Luis Alberto Jimenez was injured in an automobile accident in 2000. The Guatemalan native was working in the U.S. illegally at the time, and so after his emergency medical care at Martin Memorial he had no Medicaid coverage; he also had no insurance and no resources. For eleven months in 2001 Martin Memorial provided care worth over $1 million; although staff members sought to place him in a skilled nursing facility, none would accept him without any prospect of payment.

Mr. Jimenez’ court-appointed guardian (a cousin by marriage) filed a report with the Florida probate court describing his proposed treatment plan. Because Mr. Jimenez required 24-hour care in a hospital or skilled nursing facility, his guardian proposed leaving him right where he was. That’s when Martin Memorial decided to take decisive action.

The hospital objected to the guardian’s plan. What Mr. Jimenez really needed, argued the hospital, was to return to Guatemala, where he could be cared for in a facility that had agreed to accept him. The probate judge agreed, and ordered that Mr. Jimenez could be sent back to his native country.

The guardian scheduled an emergency appeal hearing for 10:00 a.m. the next day, but sometime before 7:00 a.m. hospital staff loaded Mr. Jimenez on a private jet and flew him to Guatemala. The Florida appeals court soon ruled that the original order was invalid, but Mr. Jimenez was already back in his home country—living on the floor of his mother’s one-room home, since the Guatemala facility discharged him for non-payment.

Mr. Jimenez’ guardian then sued the hospital for false imprisonment. Though a trial judge threw the case out (the hospital was acting under color of a court order, reasoned the judge), the Florida Court of Appeals has reinstated the proceeding. The original "deportation" order was void, said the appellate judges, and the hospital may be liable if Mr. Jimenez can show that its actions were unwarranted and unreasonable. Jimenez v. Martin Memorial Medical Center, Inc., August 23, 2006.

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