155.16 County hospitals; residents; nonresidents; fees; contagious diseases; etc.—Every hospital established under this law shall be for the benefit of the inhabitants of such county and of any person falling sick or being injured or maimed within its limits, but the board of hospital trustees may extend the privileges and use of such hospital to persons residing outside of such county upon terms and conditions as such board of trustees may from time to time, by its rules and regulations, prescribe. Every such inhabitant or person who is not a pauper shall pay to such board or such officer as it shall designate, a reasonable compensation for occupancy, nursing, care, medicine, and attendance, according to the rules and regulations prescribed by the said board. Such hospital always shall be subject to such rules and regulations as said board may adopt in order to render the use of said hospital of the greatest benefit to the greatest number; and said board may exclude from treatment and care any indigent or pay case having a communicable or contagious disease where such disease may be a detriment to the best interest of such hospital and a source of contagion or infection to the patient in its care, and all inhabitants and persons who shall willfully violate any rules and regulations of such hospital.
...t of the Legislature to place the ultimate financial obligation for the medical treatment of indigents on the county in which the indigent resides, for all those costs not fully reimbursed by other governmental programs or third-party payors.” See § 155.16, Fla....
Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 12 Fla. L. Weekly 48, 1987 Fla. LEXIS 1376
...shed by three statutory provisions: (1) article XIII, section 3, of the 1885 Florida Constitution, presently a statute as interpreted in Cleary v. Dade County, 160 Fla. 892, 37 So.2d 248 (1948); (2) section 154.302, Florida Statutes (1981); and, (3) section 155.16, Florida Statutes (1981)....
...We reject American's argument that section 154.302 has the broader legislative purpose of placing a general financial duty for indigent medical care on each of Florida's counties. We find no such legislative intent in chapter 154. Finally, considering the enactment of section 155.16, we conclude again that the legislature did not intend to impose a duty for indigent medical care on the counties....
...For instance, section 155.03 states: "[N]othing herein shall require the board of county commissioners to expend any funds of the county in the maintenance of such hospital or the administration of such trust." § 155.05, Fla. Stat. (1985). With such a provision in the chapter, it would be totally unreasonable to find that section 155.16 expresses legislative intent to create a duty on all counties....
This Florida statute resource is curated by Graham W. Syfert, Esq., a Jacksonville, Florida personal injury and workers' compensation attorney (Florida Bar No. 39104). For legal consultation, call 904-383-7448.
