A Florida patient who was formally discharged five months ago will not leave her hospital room, and the hospital has had to go to court to remove her.
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare has asked a local court to authorize the Leon County Sheriff’s Office to remove the unidentified woman, reported the Tallahassee Democrat on March 17, 2026. The hospital discharged the patient on October 6, 2025, but the room remains occupied, reported Elena Barrera.
Barrera quoted the complaint but provided no link. “TMH staff made repeated efforts to assist the defendant in safely completing discharge,” wrote Barrera. “TMH offered assistance, including coordination with family members and offering non-emergency medical transportation to obtain necessary identification.”
Health Care News reached out to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare for a comment. “TMH is not able to discuss ongoing legal matters, including background details,” the hospital said in an email.
EMTALA?
With few details, policy analysts can only guess what might be happening inside the hospital.
“EMTALA and Medicare regulations forbid hospitals from discharging patients without an ‘acceptable’ discharge plan,” said Linda Gorman, the director of health care policy at The Independence Institute.
‘EMTALA’ is the acronym for the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, a federal law passed in 1986. The Act ensures “public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay,” states the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on its website. The Act applies to all hospitals that participate in Medicare and offer emergency services, such as active labor.
Gorman says that is where it gets tricky for hospitals, even if they are private, which a majority are. “A discharge plan is basically impossible if someone is homeless or an illegal from an impoverished country with no known family.”
John Dunn, M.D., J.D., who has worked in emergency medicine for years, does not recall ever seeing such a situation in his experience.
“If the inpatient care doesn’t work, hospitals have no obligation to be a hotel,” said Dunn. “If the medical assessment identified a medical problem, they have a duty under EMTALA to treat the emergency medical condition identified. After that, the discharge is on the physician’s order.”
Hospital Burden
In 2025, Health Care News reported eight for-profit and nonprofit general acute-care facilities sued New Jersey for failing to provide adequate compensation for the state’s requirement to provide charity care. The New Jersey Supreme Court rejected the claim, and an attorney told local media, the hospitals would consider asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.
The court’s analysis is “flawed” and “contrary to the trend of United States Supreme Court decisions in the last decade finding wrongful physical takings occurring in regulated industries and activities,” John Zen Jackson told NJ Advance Media.
“Government is not supposed to require private entities to provide services without compensation,” said Gorman about the Tallahassee case. “If it wants to provide services to people who are not citizens or for whom a discharge plan cannot be designed because they are homeless, paralyzed, and addicted to drugs, then it ought to pay for facilities that provide the kind of oversight that is needed.”
Illegal Immigration
Even though Congress has been trying to control government health care coverage for people who entered the country illegally, EMTALA raises many obstacles for hospitals.
“EMTALA creates coverage for emergency care, and coverage doesn’t expire until the patient is discharged,” said Dunn. “The hospital (in the Tallahassee case) was paid for the days, more than likely.”
Gorman says hospitals can discharge patients to “continuum of care” facilities. “People know how to do it,” said Gorman. “If, and if this is such a big problem, then the government should pay for it. After, of course, someone has exhausted his assets. Or transfer the patient to a government hospital. Maybe the federal government could require states to provide ‘adequate’ arrangements for people who cannot be discharged safely as a condition for participation in Medicaid.”
Squatter Patients
Gorman says she is aware of one case where the patient asked to be discharged against medical advice. The plan involved a neighbor promising to look after the patient.
“She needed a lot of care,” said Gorman. “After she was discharged, the neighbor did not live up to her promise. The patient then sued the hospital for an inadequate discharge plan.”
In any case, a hospital should never have to sue to remove a patient who won’t leave. “Maybe the squatter can be discharged normally but refuses to approve the plan. She gets a transfer.”
‘Bed Blocking’
Another problem is ‘bed blocking’ due to inadequate long-term beds if the patient is a citizen in a country with a more socialized medical system, says Gorman.
“The legal types in the late 2,000s were writing papers claiming that the feds had to pass a law to forbid sending patients to their home countries to be with their families if the countries didn’t have medical care advanced enough for their needs,” said Gorman. “Geez, cash register for the world.”
AnneMarie Schieber ([email protected]) is the managing editor for Health Care News.
