Planned Parenthood Filed 25,000 False Claims Totaling $377 Million in Medicaid Fraud, Lawsuit Says

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 8, 2016   |   5:20PM   |   Washington, DC

Planned Parenthood kills children and injures women in abortions. But the abortion company also engages in Medicaid fraud, a lawsuit contends.

Yesterday, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden appeared before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on behalf of Jonathan Bloedow. Bloedow is a Washington taxpayer who alleges that Planned Parenthood submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursement” to the state’s Department of Social and Health Services.

According to the suit, Bloedow discovered through his own research that Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest filed at least 25,000 false claims with HRSA for reimbursements in excess of the amount allowed for oral contraceptive pills and at least another 25,000 for reimbursements in excess of the amount allowed for “emergency contraceptive” (“Plan B”) pills under the federal government’s 340B drug reimbursement program. Total damages could be as much as $377,134,130.

“The taxpayer dollars of Americans should be used responsibly and for the common good, not funneled to groups like Planned Parenthood that abuse the public’s trust,” said Aden. “Planned Parenthood’s financial bottom line doesn’t trump compliance with the law. We are asking the court to hold them accountable.”

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The federal False Claims Act allows “whistleblowers” with inside information to expose fraudulent billing by government contractors. In July 2011, ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit Bloedow v. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest under the act. A federal district judge dismissed the case on technical grounds, wrongly concluding that another lawsuit against an entirely different Planned Parenthood affiliate based in California barred Bloedow’s claims, so ADF appealed to the 9th Circuit.

Bloedow’s lawsuit alleges that Planned Parenthood submitted false claims to Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services and its Health and Recovery Services Administration. HRSA runs the state’s Title XIX Medicaid program.

Alliance Defending Freedom represents former Planned Parenthood facility director Sue Thayer in a separate False Claims Act lawsuit, Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. In that case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit reinstated the lawsuit after it, too, was first dismissed by a district judge.

Last year, Alliance Defending Freedom released its updated report to Congress that identified more than $129.7 million in waste, abuse, and potential fraud committed by Planned Parenthood, state family planning programs, and other organizations.

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