Theoretically this is possible to do if you’ve avoided any documentation your entire life, or more likely, the hospital staff just dont care enough and forget to find out who you really are before letting you leave.
But realistically the hospital is going to have the cops come in and do a background check on you before even letting you get further care after lifesaving measures. And if you dont give up your information then your most likely getting ICE called on your ass…
none of that is going to happen. hospitals in america are required to provide care in emergencies, no matter if you have documentation or not. you’re not getting ICE called (no hospital is going to do that) and no cops are going to come in to do a background check (what would they check? you don’t have any ID, you’re not required to provide an ID, there’s no crime being committed).
hospitals in america are required to provide care in emergencies
Yes thats why I stated anything further then life saving procedures
Your not getting ICE called
While not called, ICE has arrested/deported hospital patients
you’re not required to privide an ID
Yes you are? At the very least you must provide contact information and who you are. Hospitals are looking to make money off of you lol, not paying is a crime
And when I slammed into a mountainside in my car the hospital I stayed at was very pissed I couldn’t remember my phone number (I just got a new one) and ran an entire background check on me
The only thing hospitals aren’t gonna do is share your medical information with 3rd parties due to HIPPA, they themselves are still gonna collect it tho
Hospitals are only required to give you life saving medical attention, nothing more, which I already referenced twice. And your not simply allowed to go “thanks for putting my arm back on, bye!” If you refuse to tell the hospital who you are after the fact they can and will call the police since your attempting fraud (refusing to pay), if you provide a false ID (name and address etc) then whoever is handling the billing will call the police for fraud
That assumes a person isn’t a Hispanic day laborer at a hospital during an ICE raid. ICE seems to be focusing on places of work for their targets, but with the current pause on the federal judge’s ruling, ICE can violate the fourth amendment anywhere.
ICE doesn’t need any ID to look at a person and make a judgement based on physical appearance.
In her dissent, Sotomayor argued that the Trump administration, “and now the concurrence” by Kavanaugh, “has all but declared that all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction.”
In Sotomayor’s view, the Trump administration had not shown that it was ultimately likely to prevail on the merits. In particular, she wrote, “a set of facts cannot constitute reasonable suspicion if it ‘describes a very large category of presumably innocent’ people.” “Allowing the seizure,” she said, “of any Latino speaking Spanish at a car wash in Los Angles tramples the constitutional requirement that officers ‘must have a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.’”
(what would they check? you don’t have any ID, you’re not required to provide an ID, there’s no crime being committed).
There is actually a crime committed. Giving a fake name? Obtaining services with no intention of paying for them? Legally speaking that’s no different than doing a dine-and-dash at a restaurant. Legally speaking, this is theft or fraud. And the cops could absolutely get involved.
Once the cops are involved, finding your identity will be trivial. Cops find people in situations like this every day. It’s not like the people who rob liquor stores tell the clerk their real identity. The hospital will have video of you, they’ll have your full identifying information - height, weight, sex, race, plus medically identifying info like scars, blood type, etc.
It’s not really about DNA. Deliberately using a false name to escape money owed? In any other context, no one would consider that anything other than fraud. It’s only understandable here because of the unique dysfunction of our medical system. But unfortunately, legally speaking, it’s no different than any other fraud. Obtaining a good or service with no intention of paying for it is legally simply theft or fraud. It’s no different than if you dine and dash at a restaurant. The hospital can absolutely report you to the police in that case. And it’s not like the cops are inexperienced with tracking people down of unknown identity. The hospital will have a lot of details about you - your gender, height, weight, age, ethnicity, etc. And your medical treatment may leave behind identifying marks or scars, your blood type, etc. that could make you easily identifiable once caught. And above all else, they’ll have video of you in the hospital.
Even if you were a complete unknown in the system, the police could easily track you down. They catch people who rob gas stations with far less info than what you give to a hospital, even using a pseudonym.
Now, if you were actually charged with fraud or theft, a judge would likely go easy on your for this type of crime. Juries would be very sympathetic to someone who did this. So you would probably avoid jail time. But at the very least the court would still order you to pay the hospital what you owe them.
In case people are missing the joke the reason is so that they can’t find you to bill you.
This doesn’t actually work quite like this, but it’s a funny joke none the less.
Especially if you’ve been to that hospital before. And if you have any medical records anywhere.
If you have medical records, do they keep a DNA record of you?
If you don’t keep a record of yourself and don’t have any ID on yourself when you call, if you don’t give a name can they match your DNA or something?
Theoretically this is possible to do if you’ve avoided any documentation your entire life, or more likely, the hospital staff just dont care enough and forget to find out who you really are before letting you leave.
But realistically the hospital is going to have the cops come in and do a background check on you before even letting you get further care after lifesaving measures. And if you dont give up your information then your most likely getting ICE called on your ass…
none of that is going to happen. hospitals in america are required to provide care in emergencies, no matter if you have documentation or not. you’re not getting ICE called (no hospital is going to do that) and no cops are going to come in to do a background check (what would they check? you don’t have any ID, you’re not required to provide an ID, there’s no crime being committed).
Yes thats why I stated anything further then life saving procedures
While not called, ICE has arrested/deported hospital patients
Yes you are? At the very least you must provide contact information and who you are. Hospitals are looking to make money off of you lol, not paying is a crime
And when I slammed into a mountainside in my car the hospital I stayed at was very pissed I couldn’t remember my phone number (I just got a new one) and ran an entire background check on me
The only thing hospitals aren’t gonna do is share your medical information with 3rd parties due to HIPPA, they themselves are still gonna collect it tho
They will try to collect it. They still have to treat you, no matter if you give it or not.
Hospitals are only required to give you life saving medical attention, nothing more, which I already referenced twice. And your not simply allowed to go “thanks for putting my arm back on, bye!” If you refuse to tell the hospital who you are after the fact they can and will call the police since your attempting fraud (refusing to pay), if you provide a false ID (name and address etc) then whoever is handling the billing will call the police for fraud
That assumes a person isn’t a Hispanic day laborer at a hospital during an ICE raid. ICE seems to be focusing on places of work for their targets, but with the current pause on the federal judge’s ruling, ICE can violate the fourth amendment anywhere.
ICE doesn’t need any ID to look at a person and make a judgement based on physical appearance.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/09/supreme-court-allows-federal-officers-to-more-freely-make-immigration-stops-in-los-angeles/
There is actually a crime committed. Giving a fake name? Obtaining services with no intention of paying for them? Legally speaking that’s no different than doing a dine-and-dash at a restaurant. Legally speaking, this is theft or fraud. And the cops could absolutely get involved.
Once the cops are involved, finding your identity will be trivial. Cops find people in situations like this every day. It’s not like the people who rob liquor stores tell the clerk their real identity. The hospital will have video of you, they’ll have your full identifying information - height, weight, sex, race, plus medically identifying info like scars, blood type, etc.
It’s not really about DNA. Deliberately using a false name to escape money owed? In any other context, no one would consider that anything other than fraud. It’s only understandable here because of the unique dysfunction of our medical system. But unfortunately, legally speaking, it’s no different than any other fraud. Obtaining a good or service with no intention of paying for it is legally simply theft or fraud. It’s no different than if you dine and dash at a restaurant. The hospital can absolutely report you to the police in that case. And it’s not like the cops are inexperienced with tracking people down of unknown identity. The hospital will have a lot of details about you - your gender, height, weight, age, ethnicity, etc. And your medical treatment may leave behind identifying marks or scars, your blood type, etc. that could make you easily identifiable once caught. And above all else, they’ll have video of you in the hospital.
Even if you were a complete unknown in the system, the police could easily track you down. They catch people who rob gas stations with far less info than what you give to a hospital, even using a pseudonym.
Now, if you were actually charged with fraud or theft, a judge would likely go easy on your for this type of crime. Juries would be very sympathetic to someone who did this. So you would probably avoid jail time. But at the very least the court would still order you to pay the hospital what you owe them.
Oh, I was about to comment something like “wtf did you kill a doctor or something?”
That makes more sense.