Gallardo v. Marstiller

Summary

Justice Thomas, writing for seven Justices, held that the Medicaid Act permits a State to reimburse itself for medical expenses already paid from settlement funds allocated to future medical care. Section 1396k(a)(1)(A) assigns rights to payment for medical care without distinguishing past from future expenses, bringing Florida’s assignment statute within an exception to the Act’s anti-lien provision. The Court also rejected the suggestion that its interpretation permits lifetime assignments of rights acquired after Medicaid eligibility ends, and affirmed the Eleventh Circuit. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Breyer, dissented, arguing that the reimbursement provisions, read together with the Act’s protections for beneficiaries’ property, permit recovery only from settlement payments compensating for care Medicaid actually furnished.