Budget Committee Requires Audit of Planned Parenthood, Other Medicaid Family Planning Providers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Madison – The Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) adopted a budget motion yesterday that would require the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health Services (DHS) to conduct a comprehensive audit of all Medicaid family planning payments to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and other Wisconsin family planning providers from Jan. 1, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2016.

The motion directs proceeds from overpayments or incorrect payments resulting from the audit to be expended on various state budget items in the 2019-2021 biennium, including DHS fraud and error investigation and reduction efforts, public health aids, community aids, grants for community programs, and treatment services for child victims of sex trafficking. 

Pro-Life Wisconsin Legislative Director Matt Sande offered the following comments: 

“In 2012, Pro-Life Wisconsin working with Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys conducted an open records request of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. The findings revealed 26 Wisconsin DHS audits uncovering $43,000 in Medicaid overbilling by Planned Parenthood from 2006 to 2012.

In 2016, the DHS released another audit finding that five Planned Parenthood facilities overbilled Wisconsin’s Medicaid program $52,193 collectively in 2014 alone. Three non-Planned Parenthood family planning facilities overbilled Medicaid by a total of $11,619. Alarmingly, the overpayments were nearly 50 percent of the audited Medicaid payments to the eight clinics.

With this sampling, we can reasonably suspect widespread fraud across Wisconsin’s Medicaid family planning program. We commend Representative André Jacque and the Republican members of the Joint Finance Committee for moving to uncover the actual extent of overpayments. Our state budget is tighter than ever and resources must be allocated prudently and fairly. Hopefully, everyone can agree that there is simply no room for any organization, public or private, to abuse state funding – the people’s money.

Wisconsin family planning providers, especially Planned Parenthood, must be held accountable for their expenditure of taxpayer dollars through comprehensive audits of their entire facility networks. It is bad enough that family planning funds fuel surgical and chemical abortions in our state. It is intolerable that Wisconsin taxpayers are ripped off in the process.”

Contact: Matt Sande, Legislative Director
Office: (262) 796-1111, ext. 13; Cell: (262) 352-0890
Email: [email protected]

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