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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, Sean Sandison

Mercer Law Review

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 …