Keeping the Government Away from Medicaid Recipients' Pocketbook: Protecting Medicaid Recipients' Rights to Proceeds of Third-Party Settlements in Arkansas Department of Health & Human Services v. Ahlborn

Authors

Sean Sandison

Publication Date

3-2007

Document Type

Casenote

Abstract

In Arkansas Department of Health & Human Services v. Ahlborn, the United States Supreme Court approached the contentious issue of whether Medicaid and state Medicaid agencies can recover expenses incurred on behalf of a Medicaid recipient from the entirety of the recipient's third-party settlement. Over the past decade, several states and the United States Department of Health and Human Services have reached opposite results on this question. In its unanimous opinion, the Court quelled the debate by limiting Medicaid and the corresponding state programs' recoveries from third-party settlements to the proceeds representing repayment of medical expenses, a move likely to cause changes for the federal government, state governments, and individual Medicaid recipients.

Recommended Citation

Sandison, Sean (2007) "Keeping the Government Away from Medicaid Recipients' Pocketbook: Protecting Medicaid Recipients' Rights to Proceeds of Third-Party Settlements in Arkansas Department of Health & Human Services v. Ahlborn," Mercer Law Review: Vol. 58: No. 2, Article 11.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/jour_mlr/vol58/iss2/11