I don't see that here. I worked at Martin Memorial in Stuart, Florida and we were bound hand and foot by regulations, both Federal and State concerning the ER and free beds and patient care.
Now, Martin is a not for profit corporation, - though not a trauma facility like St. Marys - and so is bound by more Federal Laws than a private facility, and I believe, but do not know, that this is true in any State.
Now, I also cannot see how any private hospital that does not accept any Federal money can be forced to have an ER, and personally, I wouldn't even bother to have a public ER.
But hey, I don't know other State laws, anyway. 8^)
The fact that America's medical care is overwhelmed by illegals is a disgrace
In Jacksonville, Fla, there are docs "going bare" and the hospitals have to put up with it because they'd have no docs...I'm sure it's in their bylaws that a doc can't have privileges without malpractice insurance, but they're having to deal with realities.
If a hospital accepts ER-allocated money (like the recent pittance GW authorized--I think it was a mere billion, when LA County spends 300M dollars/year just for uncompensated ER care for illegals), they would of course have to have an ER. But you've got hospitals around the Disney area losing trauma qualifications because they can't get trauma surgeons--so they can't get the big allocations for trauma. Downgrading, as are some other trauma centers, which is also a kind of "closing the ER" scenario. Just a matter of degree and the way things look like they're going.
Fla is very litigious--