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314 F.3d 1004

Docket No. 01-15986.

Anderson v. Willden

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Submission Deferred July 10, 2002.

Resubmitted Dec. 10, 2002.**

Filed Dec. 18, 2002.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 2002-12-18

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently December 2002

1 federal appellate ·

2 counsel of record

Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1396B (§ 1903 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 1396P (§ 1917 of the Social Security Act of 1935)

Relies on Cardenas v. Anzai · Vera L. Floyd v. Tommy Thompson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 2002-12-18

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*1005Henry W. Cavallera, Reno, NV, for the plaintiffs-appellants.

¶2John Albrecht, Chief Tobacco Counsel, Office of the Attorney General, Reno, NV, for the defendants-appellees.

¶3Before: CANBY and RYMER, Circuit Judges, and BERTELSMAN,… District Judge.

¶7PER CURIAM:

¶8This is an action brought by Nevada residents who allegedly suffered smoking-related illnesses for which they received state-administered medical care under the Medicaid program. They seek certain benefits from Nevada or its officials arising out of the multi-state tobacco settlement reached between major tobacco companies and 46 States.

¶9The plaintiffs’ claim is indistinguishable from that brought by similar Hawai’i plaintiffs in Cardenas v. Anzai, 311 F.3d 929 (9th Cir.2002), and Cardenas forecloses their claims. Among other things, Cardenas held that the plaintiffs’ claims of entitlement to any part of the settlement funds were wholly barred by 42 U.S.C. § 1396b(d)(3)(B)(ii), which authorized the settling States to “use amounts recovered or paid to the State as part of a comprehensive or individual settlement ... for any expenditures determined appropriate by the State.” Cardenas, 311 F.3d at 939.

¶10Only one claim advanced by the plaintiffs here arguably differs from those put forth in Cardenas. The plaintiffs here contend that they are entitled to notice and an accounting when Nevada attempts to recoup Medicaid payments from the estates of plaintiffs by imposing and enforcing liens on their property. See 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b). The plaintiffs argue that Nevada should notify them of the amount of “overages” collected in the tobacco settlement, and an accounting of the amount of settlement recovery Nevada received for the medical care of the plaintiffs from whom recoupment is sought.1

¶11This claim, however, is also foreclosed by Cardenas. It presumes that some part of the tobacco settlement must be allocated by Nevada to the accounts of the plaintiffs, either as a collected “overage” in excess of the cost of medical care furnished them, or as a setoff against the debt otherwise owed by the plaintiffs’ estates to Nevada for medical care furnished. Cardenas holds, however, that § 1396b(d)(3)(B)(ii) precludes plaintiffs from establishing any *1006claim for their own accounts arising from the tobacco settlement.

¶12The judgment of the district court dismissing the plaintiffs’ action is

¶13AFFIRMED.

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