Friday, July 19, 2013

PPGC clinic closures had nothing to do with those Medicaid fraud charges, sure

JillStanek.com
Jul.18, 2013 9:58 pm

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast took the occasion of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s signing of a new omnibus pro-life law today to announce it was closing three of its 12 clinics. The reason, per Huffington Post:
Screen shot 2013-07-18 at 10.14.49 PM
The three clinics are located in Bryan, Huntsville and Lufkin, Texas. They are closing in response to a new package of a new package of abortion restrictions signed into law on Thursday and funding cuts to Texas’ Women’s Health Program that were passed by the Texas state legislature in 2011. Out of the three Planned Parenthood clinics that are closing, only the Bryan clinic performs abortions.
Planned Parenthood timed its notice to steal media attention away from pro-lifers, while also trying to put Texas legislators on the defensive. But was this really an attempt to erase dots between the shutdowns and PPGC’s problem with Medicaid fraud?

Most interesting is the former employees who have accused PPGC of Medicaid fraud worked at two of the closing clinics.

Karen Reynolds, who filed a lawsuit in 2011, worked at the Lufkin facility; and Abby Johnson, who filed a lawsuit in 2012, worked at the Bryan clinic.

The charges may or may not lead to prosecutions, but my first thought today was that subsequent attempts by PPGC to clean up its books resulted in such a noticeable loss of profits it had to shutter the doors at 1/4 of its centers, two of which were surely under added scrutiny.
I spoke with Abby Johnson this afternoon, who agreed the Medicaid fraud charges had something to do with the closures.

Read more on Jill Stanek's blog.

Who Is Jill Stanek?
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
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