Counterclaim in aid recipient's underlying tort suit not required to enforce lien.

- When the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) filed a departmental lien against plaintiff recipient's settlement proceeds to recover Medicaid sums that it expended to pay providers for the recipient's medical treatment, and the recipient filed a declaratory judgment suit, seeking a declaration that DCH's lien was invalid, the trial court properly granted the summary judgment motion of the defendant, the Commissioner of the DCH, as, contrary to the recipient's contention, the DCH was not required under O.C.G.A. § 49-4-147 or otherwise to file a counterclaim in the recipient's underlying tort suit in order to preserve its right to assert a lien under O.C.G.A. § 49-4-149(a) given that: (1) pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(a)(1), no counterclaim was authorized against the recipient to recover for the medical assistance, but the lien against the money recovered from the third party was expressly authorized by O.C.G.A. § 49-4-149(a); and (2) the recipient was deemed under O.C.G.A. § 49-4-149(d) to have assigned to the DCH the recipient's rights of recovery against the third party that was liable for the recipient's injuries, such that the recipient was in no position to challenge the DCH's right to collect on that assignment from the settlement which the recipient received. Padgett v. Toal, 261 Ga. App. 154, 581 S.E.2d 744 (2003).