Girl Hit by Truck Asks SCOTUS to Bar Florida Medicaid Claim

An incapacitated Florida girl asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that the state’s Medicaid agency can recover payments it made for her medical expenses only out of the part of a settlement designated to pay past costs.

Gianinna Gallardo was 13 when a truck struck her minutes after she’d stepped off a school bus. She’s in a persistent vegetative state and faces a lifetime of expensive care.

But $300,000 of her $800,000 personal injury settlement with the truck’s owner and driver has been claimed by Florida’s Medicaid agency for repayment of past medical expenses it paid on Gallardo’s behalf. ...