The federal government has long claimed a right to recoup medical outlays made for the benefit of persons who later obtain lawsuit settlements; now it's loading new burdens onto lawsuit defendants in an effort to simplify the process of collection, and neither the defense nor the plaintiff's bar is very happy about that. Bruce Nye, Cal Biz Lit:

The issue is this: Congress has enacted legislation (42 U.S.C. 1395y(b)(7) & (8)) requiring that every insurer or self-insured company that settles a personal injury case with a Medicare beneficiary submit an electronic report of the settlement to CMS, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Administration, so that Medicare's recovery contractor can recover every last dime of the benefits it has paid. And if the recovery contractor can't get the money from the plaintiff, it's coming after the defendant or its insurer -- even if they've already paid the plaintiff.

More: Beck & Herrmann and followup on stay, Kirk Hartley, Patrick @ Popehat (scroll).