HB 1028 – Attorney’s fees on medicaid liens

Introduced Version, House Bill 1028

I like this one! Increases the attorney’s fee to be paid by the Medicaid office in personal injury recoveries. It’s not limited to PI recoveries, but basically what happens is that Medicaid covers the medical costs for an injured person. The injured person thinks someone else is responsible. Let’s call him a tortfeasor. So, injured person has a cause of action against the tortfeasor. The Medicaid office has a lien on the claim against the tortfeasor. Usually what happens is that the injured person hires an attorney on contingency to pursue the tortfeasor. This bill just increases the amount the Medicaid office has to pay the attorney as its “fair share” for benefitting in any recovery against the tortfeasor. It’s 25% before suit & 1/3 after, up from 7.5%/10%. Since contingency fees are usually around 1/3, the Medicaid office has been getting a free ride to the tune of about 25%, coming out of the hide of either the attorney (don’t cry) or the already impoverished injured party.