Oklahoma pro-life Gov. Mary Fallin is moving to stop taxpayer dollars from funding Planned Parenthood this week after a state review discovered that the abortion giant’s state affiliates may be overbilling Medicaid.
Fallin requested Wednesday that the Oklahoma Health Care Authority end its contracts with the abortion business’s affiliates that operate in the state, Fox News 25 in Oklahoma reports.
An state review of Planned Parenthood found a high rate of billing errors to Medicaid, 20.3 percent in one review and 14.1 percent in another, according to a letter Fallin submitted to the state Health Care Authority Board director, Nico Gomez. In the past two years, the state gave the two Planned Parenthood affiliates more than $300,000 for Medicaid claims, according to Fallin’s office.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately
“These results are alarming,” Fallin said in the letter. “These errors result in overbilling to the Oklahoma taxpayer. Research strongly suggests that Planned Parenthood and its Oklahoma and national affiliates regularly, whether intentionally or negligently, engage in a pattern of practices resulting in the overbilling of state Medicaid programs.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been involved in several lawsuits alleging that Planned Parenthood affiliates overbilled Medicaid, praised Fallin’s actions Thursday in a press release.
“Governor Fallin is right to recognize that taxpayer money should go to fund local community health centers, not to subsidize a scandal-ridden, billion-dollar abortion business,” said ADF Legal Counsel Kellie Fiedorek. “Oklahomans shouldn’t be forced to give their money to Planned Parenthood, which has a long track record of abusive and potentially fraudulent billing practices, not to mention that it has also been caught in authenticated undercover videos trafficking aborted babies’ body parts and has repeatedly failed to report the sexual abuse of girls. That tax money should be redirected to trusted health care providers.”
Fallin’s letter emphasized that, without Planned Parenthood, Oklahomans will have access to many quality healthcare providers all across the state.
“There are only two Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state operating in about six metropolitan locations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa,” according to the letter. “However, there are more than 120 other metropolitan and rural providers available … all of whom provide a broader spectrum of health care services than Planned Parenthood’s limited metropolitan locations.”
Fallin’s letter also cited evidence of Planned Parenthood’s fraudulent billing practices in other states.
One whistleblower lawsuit involves a former Iowa Planned Parenthood manager who said the abortion business submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursements” to Medicaid.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts
Alliance Defending Freedom, which is involved in Thayer’s lawsuit, said the case has not reached a final result.
A similar lawsuit alleging fraudulent billing to Medicaid by a Texas Planned Parenthood resulted in a $4.3 million settlement in 2013. In the lawsuit, Karen Reynolds, who worked for the abortion business from 1999 to 2009, submitted company memos and emails to support her charge that the Texas Planned Parenthood had engaged in a system-wide scheme to bilk Medicaid, Title XX, and the Women’s Health Program of tens of millions of dollars over the course of at least a decade.
