By Casey Mattox
Editor’s note. This first appeared at blog.alliancedefendingfreedom.org.
Last week news broke that Planned Parenthood would be settling with Texas, repaying $1.4 Million for “fraudulently overbilling” the state’s Medicaid program. At the time we expected there was more to come. There was. The Texas settlement is only a portion of a larger settlement with the state and federal governments and Karen Reynolds, a former Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast employee who blew the whistle on its fraudulent billing. Planned Parenthood will actually repay $4.3 million to U.S. and Texas taxpayers to settle the fraud claims and an unspecified amount for Reynolds’ attorneys’ fees.
But while you are likely to hear very little about this in the media, this is not the first time that state or federal governments have determined that Planned Parenthood affiliates have engaged in waste, abuse and potential fraud with taxpayer dollars. In just a handful of publicly disclosed and very limited audits of Planned Parenthood affiliates, federal and state government auditors in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, California, and a previous audit in Texas have documented approximately $8.3 million in waste, abuse and possible fraud by America’s leading abortionist.
The grand total: Federal and state auditors and investigators have specifically tabbed Planned Parenthood affiliates with at least $12.5 million in waste, abuse, and “fraudulent overbilling” of taxpayers. (View the Alliance Defending Freedom full report on the state audits here.)
Former Planned Parenthood employees and others allege many millions more. And yet Planned Parenthood will have the temerity to complain whenever a state suggests redirecting its taxpayer subsidies to true women’s healthcare providers. And much of the media will feign ignorance of Planned Parenthood’s dubious treatment of the taxpayers, puzzling at any effort to redirect its funds to providers with a more fiscally responsible (and woman’s health focused) track record.
Planned Parenthood insists that its settlement does not prove it did anything wrong and it simply agreed to make the claims go away. It isn’t uncommon for a Defendant to pay a small amount to bring an end to a lawsuit even where it believes it did nothing wrong. But let’s be real. Planned Parenthood is a defendant in another pending Medicaid fraud case (Abby Johnson’s). Planned Parenthood has spent years challenging limits on and its exclusion from Texas Medicaid programs. Planned Parenthood has announced its intention to fight state health and safety laws that it claims would shut down the very clinics where Abby Johnson and Karen Reynolds worked. If you believe Planned Parenthood would voluntarily pay $4.3 million if it thought the claims were truly “baseless” then I have appreciating property to sell you in Detroit.