Court Opinion

ID: 4446379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2019-10-11 17:03:14.970204+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:03:50.710290
License: Public Domain

FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
                 STATE OF FLORIDA
                  _____________________________

                          No. 1D18-1172
                  _____________________________

MARIO LARRIGUI-NEGRON,

    Appellant,

    v.

STATE OF FLORIDA, AGENCY FOR
HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION,

    Appellee.
                  _____________________________

On appeal from the Division of Administrative Hearings.
J. Bruce Culpepper, Administrative Law Judge.

                         October 11, 2019

PER CURIAM.

     Appellant challenges the Administrative Law Judge’s (ALJ)
denial of his petition to reduce an Agency for Healthcare
Administration (AHCA) Medicaid lien on his settlement with a
third-party tortfeasor. He contends that the ALJ erred by rejecting
uncontradicted evidence that the Medicaid lien should be reduced
without identifying a reasonable basis in the evidence to do so. We
agree.

     Here, as in Eady v. State, No. 1D18-1852 (Fla. 1st DCA Sept.
12, 2019), appellant put forth sufficient facts to establish that the
Medicaid lien should be reduced while AHCA presented no
contradictory evidence. Since there was no reasonable basis for the
ALJ to reject appellant’s evidence, we find that the ALJ erred as a
matter of law in concluding that appellant failed to prove his case
by a preponderance of the evidence. Accordingly, we remand the
cause to DOAH for the ALJ to reduce AHCA’s Medicaid lien to
$11,637.54. See Giraldo v. Agency for Health Care Admin., 248 So.
3d 53, 56 (Fla. 2018).

WOLF, ROBERTS, and ROWE, JJ., concur.

                 _____________________________

    Not final until disposition of any timely and
    authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
    9.331.
               _____________________________

Bryan S. Gowdy and Meredith A. Ross of Creed & Gowdy,
Jacksonville; and John Staunton of Staunton & Faglie, PL,
Clearwater, for Appellant.

Alexander R. Boler, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

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