Opinion ID: 1350648
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: State Medical Assistance Lien

Text: Having set forth the federal law, we must now juxtapose the federal anti-lien provision and Minnesota's medical assistance lien to determine whether compliance with both is impossible or whether the state law is an obstacle to accomplishment of the purposes of the federal Medicaid scheme. The state lien provision gives the state a lien for the cost of care upon any and all causes of action which accrue to the medical assistance recipient as a result of the injuries that necessitated the medical care. Minn.Stat. § 256B.042, subd. 1. But as previously noted, these causes of action or claims are the personal property of the medical assistance recipient. See Royal Mineral Ass'n, 132 Minn. at 236, 156 N.W. at 130; see also Mattson, 95 Minn. at 488, 104 N.W. at 448. Therefore, the state medical assistance lien provision appears to conflict with the federal anti-lien provision and should be subjected to a preemption analysis. Under conflict preemption, federal law preempts state law when compliance with both is impossible or when the state statute is an obstacle to the purposes of the federal scheme. See Fla. Lime & Avocado Growers, 373 U.S. at 142-43, 83 S.Ct. 1210; Hines, 312 U.S. at 67, 61 S.Ct. 399. Here, the federal anti-lien statute prohibits placing a lien upon a medical assistance recipient's personal property before the recipient's death. This provision can coexist with the federal assignment provision because the assignment removes from the property of the recipient his claim for medical care. Yet the state's medical assistance lien provision allows a lien to be placed on a variety of claims that are still the recipient's personal property. This result is in direct conflict with the federal anti-lien provision. Therefore, we conclude that compliance with both provisions is not possible because the federal law prohibits exactly what the state law allows. Having concluded that the state lien provision is in conflict with federal law, we are now presented with two options for the ultimate fate of the state law. One option is to hold that the state law is preempted entirely. However, preemption is disfavored, and a state law should be preempted only to the extent that it is in conflict with federal law. See Weber v. Heaney, 995 F.2d 872, 875 (8th Cir.1993); Forster, 437 N.W.2d at 658. But given the clear and broad prohibition of the no lien language in the federal anti-lien provision, we are not able to ascertain an appropriate limiting construction to the state's medical assistance lien provision. Therefore, we hold that section 256B.042, Minnesota's medical assistance lien statute, is preempted to the extent that it allows a lien for medical assistance paid to be placed on a medical assistance recipient's cause of action before a recipient's death.