Medicare and Medicaid Liens on a Kansas Injury Settlement

By the FigureMyTax Editorial Team · How we calculate

The Kansas Medicaid secretary may recover what it paid from you or the third party and is subrogated to your rights. Medicaid is secondary to other coverage, the right is reduced by your percentage of negligence, and the court fixes attorney fees, with the secretary's share capped at one-third before trial. Medicare recovers under federal rules.

Recovery and subrogation

K.S.A. 39-719a(a) says that where medical assistance has been paid and a third party has a legal obligation to pay those expenses, the secretary may recover the same from you or from the third party and is subrogated in all respects to your rights, except as provided under listed sections. Payment of medical assistance is secondary to any other insurance coverage or third party with a legal obligation to pay.

Assignment

By applying for or receiving medical assistance, your rights to payment for medical care from a third party are deemed assigned to the secretary automatically, and the amounts collected are retained by the secretary for repayment of the unreimbursed portion of assistance (K.S.A. 39-709).

Attorney fees

Unless otherwise agreed, the court fixes attorney fees, to be paid proportionately by the secretary and by you. The fees the secretary pays are fixed by the court in an amount not exceeding one-third of the medical assistance recovered for cases settled before trial, or two-fifths when a trial is convened (39-719a(b)).

Your negligence

If the recovery is reduced for comparative negligence under K.S.A. 60-258a, the secretary's right of subrogation is reduced by the percentage of negligence attributable to you (39-719a(c)).

Federal limit and Medicare

In Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services v. Ahlborn (2006), the U.S. Supreme Court held that Medicaid may reach only the portion of a settlement that represents medical costs. Under the Medicare Secondary Payer statute, 42 U.S.C. 1395y(b)(2), the United States may recover conditional payments and collect double damages from responsible entities; 42 CFR 411.24 governs recovery, and 42 CFR 411.37(c) reduces Medicare's recovery by its procurement-cost share. On a $100,000 settlement with $36,333 of fees and costs, $15,000 of Medicare payments would shrink to about $9,550.

What we did not find

We did not find in these sections a notice deadline for you, or a formula that fixes the secretary's share of the recovery. Ask the agency for its itemized claim. See how hospital liens work and why Kansas bars most health plan subrogation, then enter every claim in the Kansas medical lien calculator.

This is general information, not legal advice, and the state comparisons above are illustrative, not an exhaustive survey. Confirm how Kansas's rules apply to your specific case with a licensed Kansas attorney.