Medicaid Liens and Gallardo
AHLA thanks the leaders of the Health Care Liability and Litigation Practice Group for contributing this feature article.
- October 01, 2022
- Hannah Berkman , Horvitz & Levy LLP
- H. Thomas Watson , Horvitz & Levy LLP
- Peder K. Batalden , Horvitz & Levy LLP
In February 2020, a trial court in Los Angeles ruled that federal law preempted a state Medicaid lien on a tort settlement. Medicaid beneficiary L.Q.—a child whose catastrophic birth injuries rendered her disabled—sued her health care providers for negligence and settled for $3 million. The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) asserted a lien on the settlement to recover medical expenses it had paid, a standard procedure under the state’s Medicaid scheme. But the trial court denied the lien,1 ruling that a state statute on which DHCS has long relied to assert such liens was preempted by the federal Medicaid Act’s2 anti-lien provision.
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