Planned Parenthood Fraud?

 

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast agrees to pay $1.4 million for fraudulently overbilling Texas Medicaid Program

 

By Dave Andrusko
The linchpin of the pro-abortion argument that Kermit Gosnell was an “outlier” and a “renegade” who was not representative of the abortion industry is to hold up Planned Parenthood as the model. Well, that “model” has taken numerous hits including the results of the undercover work of Live Action (see nrlc.cc/19iqjIe) and what’s taken place in Delaware which final led to some minimal clinic regulations (see nrlc.cc/19ipKOA),

And that doesn’t address the bizarre comments of Alisa LaPolt Snow, the lobbyist representing the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, who said they opposed a law (subsequently passed) that would treat an abortion survivor like any other baby.

And then there is the news today from the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has settled a Medicaid fraud case, agreeing to “pay $1.4 million for fraudulently overbilling the health care program for the poor,” the Associated Press reported in a tiny story. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast operates in southeast Texas and Louisiana.

 

 

Some of the details of the case are found in a statement from Abbott’s office (see www.oag.state.tx.us/oagNews/release.php?id=4455).
A whistleblower lawsuit (although not identified in the story, her name is Karen Reynolds) alleged improper billing practices, which triggered an investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Office of Inspector General. According to the attorney general’s office

“The State’s investigation revealed that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast improperly billed the Texas Medicaid program for products and services that were never actually rendered, not medically necessary, and were not covered by the Medicaid program – and were therefore not eligible for reimbursement. For example, state investigators determined that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast falsified material information in patients’ medical records in order to support fraudulent reimbursement claims to the Medicaid program.”

The American Center for Law and Justice represented Reynolds. Further details are found in a post on the ACLJ webpage:

“According to Reynolds, during her employment by Defendant Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (‘PPGC’) between 1999 and 2009, she learned that PPGC knowingly engaged in continued violations of both federal and state law by adopting and implementing company-wide billing policies intended to maximize revenue received from government health care programs (such as Medicaid and Title XX) by expressly requiring PPGC’s clinics in Texas and Louisiana to bill the federal and state governments for reimbursement for (i) medical services that were never actually rendered; (ii) medical services that, although rendered, were known by Defendant to be medically unnecessary; and (iii) abortion-related services that PPGC knew were not properly reimbursable through these government programs.”

Medicaid is a jointly-funded federal-state program, and as a result, a share of the money will go the federal government and to Reynolds.

Source: NRLC News