Planned Parenthood Settles in Fraud Case

The Texas Attorney General’s office announced Wednesday that the nation’s largest abortion seller must pay $1.4 million for overbilling the state’s Medicaid program.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and ineligible claims for Medicaid reimbursements” through the Texas Women’s Health Program, according to a federal lawsuit made public last week.
“No matter where a person stands on abortion, everyone should agree that Planned Parenthood has to play by the same rules as everyone else,” said Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton. “It certainly isn’t entitled to a penny of public funds, especially if it is committing Medicaid fraud.”

ADF filed the complaint in 2010 on behalf of former Planned Parenthood facility director Abby Johnson. A federal law allows “whistleblowers” with inside information to expose illegal activity by government contractors. Such cases must be initially filed under seal, and are not made public while federal and state governments decide whether to join the case.
The suit alleges that Planned Parenthood knowingly filed at least 87,075 false claims from 2007 to 2009. As a result, the abortion provider wrongfully obtained more than $5.7 million in reimbursements.
“These programs are designed to help the poor, but Planned Parenthood instead uses taxpayer dollars to pad its bottom line with little regard for the health of women,” Norton explained.
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