United States Fourth Circuit

In a contest between the victim of medical malpractice and the State of North Carolina over the proceeds from a lump-sum settlement of the malpractice action, when North Carolina, through its state Medicaid program, paid medical and health care expenses on the victim's behalf, the district court's grant of summary judgment to the state is vacated and the case remanded for determination of the proper amount of North Carolina's Medicaid lien, where the North Carolina third-party liability statutes, as applied, failed to comply with federal Medicaid law that limited North Carolina's recovery to settlement proceeds representing payment for medical expenses, and the percentage of the lump-sum settlement allocable to medical expenses had to be determined by judicial determination.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/22/2012
• Published 03/22/2012

Judges

• Davis

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• William Bernard Bystrynski, Belinda Anne Smith