Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-1263diff_868c.pdf
Page Number: 12

Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

§1396k(a)(1)(A) (emphasis added).  Second, when the Med-
icaid  Act  separately  requires  state  plans  to  comply  with
§1396k, it describes that provision as imposing a “manda-
tory  assignment  of  rights  of  payment  for  medical  support
and other medical care owed to recipients.”  §1396a(a)(45)
In  short,  §1396k(a)(1)(A)  and 
(emphasis  added). 
§1396a(a)(45)  distinguish  only  between  medical  and  non-
medical  care,  not  between  past  (paid)  medical  care  pay-
ments and future (unpaid) medical care payments.  If Con-
gress  had  intended  to  draw  such  a  distinction,  “it  easily
could  have  drafted  language  to  that  effect.”  Mississippi 
ex rel.  Hood  v.  AU  Optronics  Corp.,  571  U. S.  161,  169 
(2014).

In fact, Congress did include such limiting language else-
where in the Medicaid Act.  Section 1396a(a)(25)(H), which
requires  States  to  enact  laws  granting  themselves  auto-
matic rights to certain third-party payments, contains pre-
cisely the limitation that Gallardo would read into the as-
signment  provision.  That  provision  applies  only  when 
“payment has been made under the State plan for medical 
assistance for health care items or services furnished to an 
individual,” and covers only third-party payments “for such 
health care items or services.”  §1396a(a)(25)(H) (emphasis 
added).  Thus,  if  §1396k(a)(1)(A)’s  broad  language  alone 
were not dispositive, its contrast with the limiting language 
in §1396a(a)(25)(H) would be.  “Had Congress intended to 
restrict”  §1396k(a)(1)(A)  to  past  expenses  Medicaid  has 
paid,  it  “would  have  done  so  expressly  as  it  did  in” 
§1396a(a)(25)(H).  Russello v. United States, 464 U. S. 16, 
23 (1983).

In sum, because the plain meaning of §1396k(a)(1)(A), in-
formed  by  statutory  context,  allows  Florida  to  seek  reim-
bursement  from  settlement  amounts  representing  past  or 
future  “payments  for  medical  care,”  Florida’s  assignment