GOVERNMENT BENEFITS CASES

• United Seniors Assoc., Inc. v. Phillip Morris USA
• Three Lower Counties Comty. Health Servs., Inc. v. Maryland
• Costello v. Barnhart
• Sloan v. Astrue
• Howe v. Astrue
• Wagner v. Astrue
• Ingram v. Comm'r. Soc. Sec.
• In re Corrine W.

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, August 20, 2007
United Seniors Assoc., Inc. v. Phillip Morris USA, No. 06-2447
In a suit by a nonprofit taxpayer advocacy group to force five tobacco companies to reimburse the federal Medicare program for the monies it has expended since 1999 for the medical treatment of persons suffering from smoking-related illnesses, an appeal of the dismissal of the suit is dismissed where the group lacked standing to sue since it did not allege that it represents any particular Medicare beneficiary who received unreimbursed Medicare payments for treatment of smoking-related injuries. Read more...

U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 24, 2007
Three Lower Counties Comty. Health Servs., Inc. v. Maryland, No. 06-1552
In case involving State's obligations under federal Medicaid program when paying "Federally-qualified health centers" for services they render to Medicaid patients, summary judgment for defendants is reversed in part as to plaintiff's claims for declaratory relief that: 1) Maryland does not make fully compensatory supplemental payments at least as frequently as every four months to plaintiff, a "Federally-qualified health center," for healthcare services provided to Medicaid patients; and 2) Maryland fails to compensate plaintiff for emergency healthcare services provided to Medicaid patients who are enrolled with managed care organizations with which plaintiff does not have a contract. Read more...

U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 23, 2007
Costello v. Barnhart, No. 06-4083
In a suit to offset the repayment of retirement benefits for which the recipient was ineligible by the amount of benefits that the recipient was entitled to claim for the same period, summary judgment for the Social Security Administration is reversed where information provided by an agency employee qualified as "misinformation" since: 1) an inquiry about the relative amounts of benefits necessarily implies the question whether one is eligible for those benefits in the first place; and 2) the employee had a duty to inquire about information relevant to the benefit application calculus. Read more...

U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 22, 2007
Sloan v. Astrue, No. 06-3448
A decision denying claimant's application for disability insurance benefits under the Social Security Act is reversed and remanded for reassessment where: 1) an ALJ summarily dismissed the records and recommendations from claimant's health-care professionals simply because they were too low on the pecking order as he understood it to exist at the time of the hearing; and 2) the SSA must determine whether its new ruling clarifying its assessment of opinions from sources other than those deemed "acceptable medical sources" affects its prior decision in the matter. Read more...

U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 24, 2007
Howe v. Astrue, No. 06-3518
In a Social Security case, denial of claimant's application for disability insurance benefits is affirmed where an ALJ's determination that claimant was not disabled is supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. Read more...

U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 24, 2007
Wagner v. Astrue, No. 06-3580
Denial of claimant-former police chief's application for Social Security disability insurance benefits is affirmed over claims that: 1) an ALJ improperly disregarded a doctor's opinion that claimant was completely disabled and unable to work 8-hour days and 40-hour weeks; 2) the ALJ erred in finding that his daily activities detracted from the credibility of his subjective complaints; and 3) the ALJ erred in determining that his past work was the same as the sedentary job of police chief and that he was capable of "returning" to that past work. Read more...

U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, August 23, 2007
Ingram v. Comm'r. Soc. Sec., No. 06-14602
Denial of plaintiff's application for disability benefits is reversed in part where the district court failed to consider plaintiff's evidence of mental disability that she first submitted to the Appeals Council, but did not submit to the ALJ. Read more...

California Appellate Districts, August 22, 2007
In re Corrine W., No. A115584
Juvenile court's order denying minor's motion to compel respondent to pay for automobile liability insurance so that she may lawfully drive a car is affirmed over claim that federal and state law require that such payments be made to her foster parents. Read more...