42 U.S.C. § 2651 — Recovery by United States

(a) Conditions; exceptions; persons liable; amount of recovery; subrogation; assignment.—When the law authorizes or requires the United States to provide or pay for hospital, medical, surgical, or dental care and treatment^*, including prostheses and medical appliances, for a person injured or made ill after this Act’s effective date, the United States has a right to recover the reasonable value of that care or treatment if the circumstances make a third person liable in tort for the injury or disease. The third person must be someone other than, or in addition to, the United States. The exception is an employer of seamen treated under 42 U.S.C. § 249.

The United States may recover independently of the injured or ill person’s rights. It may recover from the liable third person or that person’s insurer the reasonable value of care and treatment already provided, to be provided, paid for, or to be paid for. For this right, the United States is substituted into any right or claim that the injured or ill person, guardian, personal representative, estate, dependents, or survivors has against the third person, up to that reasonable value. The head of the United States department or agency providing the care or treatment may also require the injured or ill person, guardian, personal representative, estate, dependents, or survivors, as appropriate, to assign the claim or cause of action against the third person up to the United States’ right or claim.

(b) Recovery of cost of pay for member of uniformed services unable to perform duties.—If a member of the uniformed services is injured or becomes ill under circumstances making a third person liable in tort for damages, the United States may recover from that third person, the third person’s insurer, or both. The third person must be someone other than, or in addition to, the United States, and cannot be an employer of seamen described in subsection (a). The recoverable amount equals all pay that accrues or will accrue to the member for the period when the injury or disease prevents the member from performing regular military duties and the member is not assigned other military duties. This right is independent of the member’s rights.

(c) United States deemed third-party beneficiary under alternative system of compensation.—

(1) If State^* law applicable to a case involving a uniformed-service member injured or made ill by a third person’s wrongful conduct provides an alternative system for compensation or reimbursement, the United States is treated as a third-party beneficiary of that system. The system must replace or serve as an alternative to tort damages and must cover hospital, medical, surgical, or dental care and treatment expenses or lost pay through an insurance policy, contract, medical or hospital service agreement, or similar arrangement.

(2) For paragraph (1):

(A) The United States’ expenses for the member’s care and treatment under subsection (a) are treated as expenses incurred by the member.

(B) The United States’ cost of the member’s pay under subsection (b) is treated as pay the member lost because of the injury or disease.

(C) The United States is substituted into any right or claim that the member, guardian, personal representative, estate, dependents, or survivors have under the policy, contract, agreement, or arrangement, up to the reasonable value of care and treatment and the total pay treated as lost under subparagraph (B).

(d) Enforcement procedure; intervention; joinder of parties; State or Federal court proceedings.—To enforce a right under subsections (a), (b), and (c)(1), the United States may:

(1) intervene in or join an action or proceeding brought by the injured or ill person, guardian, personal representative, estate, dependents, or survivors against the liable third person, insurance carrier, or other entity responsible for paying or reimbursing medical expenses or lost pay; or

(2) if no such action or proceeding begins within six months after the first day the United States provides or pays for care and treatment connected with the injury or disease, start and prosecute legal proceedings against the liable third person, insurance carrier, or other responsible entity. The United States may bring the case in a State or Federal court, alone in its own name or in the name of the injured person, guardian, personal representative, estate, dependents, or survivors, or together with them.

(e) Veterans’ exception.—This section does not apply to hospital, medical, surgical, or dental care and treatment, including prostheses and medical appliances, that the Department of Veterans Affairs provides to an eligible veteran for a service-connected disability under chapter 17 of title 38.

(f) Crediting of amounts recovered.—

(1) Money recovered under this section for medical care and related services provided by a military medical treatment facility or similar military activity must be credited to the appropriation or appropriations supporting that facility or activity, as determined by regulations issued by the Secretary^* of Defense.

(2) Money recovered under this section for the United States’ cost of an injured or ill uniformed-service member’s pay must be credited to the appropriation supporting the command, activity, or other unit to which the member was assigned when injured or becoming ill, as determined by regulations issued by the Secretary concerned.

(g) Definitions.—For this section:

(1) “Uniformed services” has the meaning given in 10 U.S.C. § 101. This section does not define that term.

(2) “Tortious conduct” includes a wrongful failure to act.

(3) “Pay,” for a uniformed-service member, means basic pay, special pay, and incentive pay that the member may receive under title 37 or another law providing pay for service in the uniformed services.

(4) “Secretary concerned” means:

(A) the Secretary of Defense for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard when it operates as a service in the Navy;

(B) the Secretary of Homeland Security for the Coast Guard when it does not operate as a service in the Navy;

(C) the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service; and

(D) the Secretary of Commerce for the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.