Planned Parenthood Settles Medicaid Fraud Case in Illinois

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 6, 2012   |   6:55PM   |   Springfield, IL

The Planned Parenthood abortion business has been found in several states to have engaged in Medicaid fraud by overbilling states for reimbursements for the purchase of birth control. In Illinois, the abortion giant has been forced to give the state back hundreds of thousands of dollars in overcharged cases.

Crain’s Chicago Business has more on the settlement:

Planned Parenthood of Illinois has agreed to pay the state $367,000 to settle a dispute over alleged overbilling of the Medicaid program by the non-profit’s medical director.

Dr. Caroline Hoke, an obstetrician-gynecologist and the organization’s medical director since 2007, had been under threat of termination from the state Medicaid program since 2010, when the inspector general of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services sought to recover allegedly improper payments.

Dr. Hoke was the fourth-highest billing physician in the state Medicaid program in 2009-11, receiving $3.9 million, despite not receiving any payment for much of 2010 and all of 2011, according to a Crain’s analysis of Medicaid reimbursement records.

In the Medicaid case, the agency alleged that Dr. Hoke overbilled the state an estimated $430,380.02, mostly for services that were not documented, according to records in a DHFS administrative proceeding against Dr. Hoke.

The inspector general contested Dr. Hoke’s billings between 2006 and 2007, when she worked at Planned Parenthood of Illinois locations and at Erie Family Health Center. The West Side clinic separately agreed to pay the state $20,000 to settle its portion of the dispute.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton responded to the settlement in a comment to LifeNews.

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

 

Norton said: “Americans deserve to know if their hard-earned tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it. The Illinois case is just the tip of the iceberg, as our lawsuits against Planned Parenthood in Texas and Iowa demonstrate. Planned Parenthood isn’t entitled to any public funds, especially if it is defrauding Medicaid and the American taxpayer. People may hold different views about abortion, but everyone can agree that Planned Parenthood should play by the same rules as everyone else.”