A. For purposes of La. Rev. Stat. 46:446.2 through 446.5, “third party” shall mean health and accident insurers, group health plans as defined in §607(1) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, service benefit plans, hospital and medical service plans, health maintenance organizations, limited benefit health insurers, group blanket and franchise insurers, and state employee group benefits plan.

           B. For purposes of La. Rev. Stat. 46:446.2 through 446.5, “department” shall mean the Louisiana Department of Health.

           C. The state, through the department shall:

           (1) Undertake all reasonable measures to ascertain the legal liability of third parties, including the collection of sufficient information to enable the department to pursue claims against such third parties. This information shall be collected at the time of any determination or redetermination of eligibility for Medicaid.

           (2) Seek reimbursement for such assistance to the extent of such legal liability in any case where such a legal liability is found to exist after medical assistance has been made available on behalf of the individual and where the amount of reimbursement the department can reasonably expect to recover exceeds the cost of such recovery.

           D. To the extent that payment for covered expenses has been made by Medicaid for health care items or services furnished to an individual, in any case where a third party has a legal liability to make payments, the state is deemed to have acquired the rights of the individual to payment by any other party for those health care items or services.

           Acts 1995, No. 616, §1.