After investigating Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast over allegations that it charged Medicaid for services which were not rendered and which were medically unnecessary, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office announced a $1.4 million fine for the abortionists.
The fraud was brought to Abbott’s attention by Karen Reynolds, a whistleblower who worked for PPGC from 1999 to 2009. It turns out that $1.4 million is the amount Planned Parenthood is obliged to pay to the State of Texas. Planned Parenthood will actually pay a total of $4.3 million and the whistleblower will receive $1.2 milli
on of that amount for her efforts.
According to LifeNews.com, Reynolds submitted “memos and emails” to the Texas AG to show that PPGC had “engaged in a system-wide scheme to bilk Medicaid, Title XX, and the Texas Women’s Health Program of millions of dollars over the last decade.”
Reynolds said PPGC bosses actually “trained employees to bill government agencies for medical and family planning services no reasonable medical personnel would provide, and…for abortion-related services fudged to appear as if they were not.”
Following a thorough investigation, Abbott’s office released this statement to the public on July 24:
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.
Abbott’s office made it clear that Texas and the federal government will divide the revenue from the fine because both the state and the federal government fund Medicaid.
Such alleged frauds are nothing new for Planned Parenthood. For instance, a 2004 audit uncovered that Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside counties had overcharged the government $5,213,645.92 for oral contraceptives.
Similar stories have played out in other Planned Parenthood locations around the country.
CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!
In Los Angeles, for instance, Planned Parenthood paid $225,695.65 for Ortho Tri-Cyclen birth control pills but billed the state government more than $918,000. And in New Jersey, “family planning clinics” run by Planned Parenthood were audited, and the audit revealed New Jersey had “improperly received federal reimbursement…for 160,955 prescriptions drug claims that were billed as family planning, but did not qualify as family planning services.” This led to “a letter from the Inspector General to New Jersey officials [recommending] that New Jersey repay $2,219,746 to the federal government.”
The bottom line — once your conscience allows you to make money by ending lives, it’s apparently no big deal to make a lot more money by fudging the numbers.
The good news for supporters of life is that Planned Parenthood is not getting away with it every time. Instead, in places like Texas, they are being forced to pay $4.3 million to make things right. Stay tuned. There is more to come!
LifeNews Note: Michael Norton is a senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom.
