LARRIGUI NEGRON v. STATE (2019)

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

Mario LARRIGUI-NEGRON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration, Appellee.

No. 1D18-1172

Decided: October 11, 2019

Bryan S. Gowdy and Meredith A. Ross of Creed & Gowdy, Jacksonville; and John Staunton of Staunton & Faglie, PL, Clearwater, for Appellant. Alexander R. Boler, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

Appellant challenges the Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) denial of his petition to reduce an Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) Medicaid lien on his settlement with a third-party tortfeasor. He contends that the ALJ erred by rejecting uncontradicted evidence that the Medicaid lien should be reduced without identifying a reasonable basis in the evidence to do so. We agree.

Here, as in Eady v. State, 279 So.3d 1249, 2019 WL 4315952 (Fla. 1st DCA Sept. 12, 2019), appellant put forth sufficient facts to establish that the Medicaid lien should be reduced while AHCA presented no contradictory evidence. Since there was no reasonable basis for the ALJ to reject appellant's evidence, we find that the ALJ erred as a matter of law in concluding that appellant failed to prove his case by a preponderance of the evidence. Accordingly, we remand the cause to DOAH for the ALJ to reduce AHCA's Medicaid lien to $11,637.54. See Giraldo v. Agency for Health Care Admin., 248 So. 3d 53, 56 (Fla. 2018).

Per Curiam.

Wolf, Roberts, and Rowe, JJ., concur.

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