New Orleans, LA: The Texas Attorney General's Office today announced the conclusion of Texas's Medicaid fraud investigation into Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Inc. In the release, the Texas AG's office stated, "Under today's agreement, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast must pay $1.4 million for fraudulently overbilling the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program."
Benjamin Clapper, Executive Director of Louisiana Right to Life, and Dorinda C. Bordlee of Bioethics Defense Fund, the architect of SCR 57 by Sen. Danny Martiny and HR 105 by Rep. Frank Hoffmann, made the following statement:
"The Texas Attorney General's announcement confirmed what we discussed in the Louisiana Legislature and what was laid out in SCR 57 and HR 105: Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (PPGC) has fraudulently over-billed the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program, and therefore, the taxpayers of our nation. PPGC, the Planned Parenthood affiliate planning to build a $4.2 million regional abortion center on Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans, now must repay the government $1.4 million.
Currently, PPGC, managed out of Texas, operates two Louisiana facilities, one in New Orleans and one in Baton Rouge. In the official complaint documents, Karen Reynolds, the "whistleblower", claims that the fraudulent practices were present at all of PPGC's clinics, including the two facilities in Louisiana.*
We expect in the coming months and years even more evidence of PPGC's medicaid fraud to be made public. The settlement today only relates to the whistleblower suit from Karen Reynolds. The whistleblower suit from former PPGC Facility Director Abby Johnson has not gone to settlement at this time.
Louisiana does not need a company with a history of fraud and abuse setting up a regional abortion center in New Orleans in the name of "women's health".
"Based on this serious abuse of taxpayer funds, we encourage the Jindal Administration to immediately suspend Louisiana's contract with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast pending a thorough investigation as urged by the legislature in the two detailed resolutions."
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