Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast submitted more than 87,000 reimbursement claims for services that were “false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible,” said the lawsuit filed by Abby K. Johnson on behalf of the United States and the state of Texas in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston.
Ms. Johnson is a former director of one of the clinics and had “system-wide” access to patient records and billing activities for about two years.
Ms. Johnson, who became a pro-life activist after viewing an ultrasound and has converted to Catholicism, said Friday she filed the lawsuit under the federal False Claims Act in 2009 “to simply expose Planned Parenthood and expose their corruption, and expose what they are doing with American tax dollars.”
“Everyone, no matter what you think about abortion, should be interested in where our money is going and how it is being spent,” Ms. Johnson said. “As someone who saw the inside of this and saw the fraudulent billing and the fraudulent claims, I felt like I had a duty, and it was necessary for me to come forward with this information.”
The lawsuit was kept under seal until Friday, when U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt made it public. It alleges that the 10 clinics in Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast put in fraudulent claims worth about $5.7 million to the Texas Women’s Health Program, the state’s Medicaid program.
Requests for comment Friday from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast were not answered…
Here's the rest of Cheryl Wetzstein's story in the Washington Times.
