Taxpayers overbilled $130M by PP, abortionists

Planned Parenthood and other publicly funded abortion clinics have been exposed for fraudulently overbilling taxpayers, which ended up costing taxpayer more than $130 million, according to a recent report divulging federal audits.

The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), which is the education arm of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, partnered with the Christian legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to disclose their fifth annual report analyzing federal audits of abortion providers in order to determine the extent to which they waste taxpayer dollars.

Stealing to kill …

The report, titled “Profit. No Matter What,” uncovered the staggering amount of federal funds that Planned Parenthood affiliates and state family programs have underhandedly taken from taxpayers.

CLI Senior Fellow Catherine Glen Foster maintains that the abortion industry’s unscrupulous actions are a direct violation of the Hyde Amendment, which bans Medicaid funds from going toward abortions of preborn children.

“The Nebraska audit found a Planned Parenthood affiliate spending federal funds on abortion expenses in violation of federal and state law,” Foster explained in her report, which covers the recent audits of Planned Parenthood facilities in Oklahoma, Ohio, Wisconsin and Nebraska, as well as state family planning programs in Texas, California and Wisconsin. “Charlotte Lozier Institute and Alliance Defending Freedom’s research strongly suggests that Planned Parenthood and its affiliates are engaged in a pattern of practices designed to maximize their bottom-line revenues through billings to complex, well-funded federal and state programs that are understaffed and rely on the integrity of the provider for program compliance.”

Analysts contend that the audits make it evident that the world’s largest abortion provider is now involved in yet another scandal – in the wake of its controversial selling of aborted baby body parts scandal.

“[W]aste by Planned Parenthood affiliates may be widespread [and] such policies may be the result of – at a minimum – a policy of benign neglect over billing practices organization-wide by Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s headquarters in New York City,” the report indicates, according to The Christian Post (CP). “[More than 50 audits reveal] numerous improper practices [showing] significant Title XIX-Medicaid overpayments of more than $8.5 million to Planned Parenthood affiliates for family planning and reproductive health services claims. In combination with the $4.3 million settlement in the Reynolds False Claims Act lawsuit, auditors and investigators have specifically identified Planned Parenthood affiliates as the source of at least $12.8 million in waste, abuse and potentially fraudulent overbilling and penalties. Former Planned Parenthood employees and others allege many millions more.”

According to information collected from 61 United States Department of Health and Human Services federal audits, the federal government was overbilled nearly $124 million by state family planning programs across America.

“In the last two years, audits limited in location, time frame and type of service examined have found overbilling to the federal program of as much as 17.32 percent and 14.58 percent of the federal share of billed costs; other audits have found overbilling as high as 53.93 percent of the federal share,” the report states. “The average overbilling percentage of all family planning program audits is 14.27 percent – higher than the Medicaid overbilling average of 9.8 percent. If the difference between these two percentages – 4.47 percent – were applied to the Medicaid program as a whole, it would amount to $42.5 billion in overbilling, and an extra $13.3 billion in waste, abuse and potential fraud of taxpayer dollars.”

Deceiving for dollars

It was also revealed that certain tactics have been employed by federally funded abortion providers in order to illegally tap into millions of dollars worth of fraudulent funding.

“Specifically, the audits found that clinics have used ‘unbundling’ billing schemes for pre-abortion examinations, counseling visits and other abortion-related services to drive up profits,” CP’s Samuel Smith reports. “Additionally, programs have also improperly billed on abortion procedures. The report details 10 different strategies used for overbilling.”

The Empire State – which reports more abortions than any other state – is one of the biggest violators in the nation.

“In New York alone during one four-year audit period, it appeared that hundreds of thousands of abortion-related claims were billed unlawfully to Medicaid,” CLI and ADF informed. “Three federal audits specifically identify Planned Parenthood – and only Planned Parenthood – as the problem in state family planning program overbilling.”

The Golden State is another major offender, where overbilling totaling $5.2 million was discovered from just two Planned Parenthood clinics alone.

“Congress should do what the House of Representatives has twice voted to do – end taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood – the nation’s most profitable abortionist – once and for all,” ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden told CP. “In light of the now-established fact that nearly one in four Planned Parenthood businesses has been implicated in financial fraud or mismanagement, Congress has an opportunity – and obligation – to protect taxpayers.”

Making things Right

Top Republicans are already working on defunding the abortion giant for a number of reasons – including its selling of baby body parts scandal – so that half a billion dollars in taxpayer money no longer goes to the scandal-plagued group on a yearly basis.

“On Thursday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said during a press conference that the House’s budget reconciliation bill will again include a provision to strip Planned Parenthood of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding,” CP’s Smith informed. “Considering Republicans have control of both legislative Houses and will soon have control of the White House when Donald Trump is sworn into the Oval Office on Jan. 20, pro-lifers in Congress are optimistic about the prospects of finally being able pass legislation into law that defunds a majority of Planned Parenthood’s $500 million in annual federal government funding.”

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who also serves as the chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, indicated that outgoing President Barack Obama has raised stiff opposition to defunding Planned Parenthood, which he has staunchly defended through every scandal during his presidency.

“We did it last Congress – we sent it down to the president and he vetoed it,” the Republican representative told CP late last year. “So, it’s been through the traps in terms of parliamentarians. We have precedent. I am very optimistic that we can accomplish that.”

In direct opposition to the relentless efforts of Democrats to unconditionally push for the continued federal funding of Planned Parenthood, Trump has vowed to uphold his pro-life platform by signing a bill to defund the world’s largest abortion provider – a promise that Smith is assured he will keep when it is delivered to his desk in the Oval Office in the upcoming weeks.

—-