Former Planned Parenthood clinic manager Abby Johnson
Posted on 03/10/2012 3:07:45 PM PST by NYer
Former Planned Parenthood clinic manager Abby Johnson
WASHINGTON, March 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Abby Johnson, a former manager at a Texas Planned Parenthood, has filed a federal “whistleblower” lawsuit alleging that the local affiliate she once worked for defrauded federal taxpayers of millions of dollars in a long-running scheme using Medicaid claims. The lawsuit is the third complaint from a former Planned Parenthood employee alleging widespread and systematic fraud at the abortion giant.
Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas, now known as Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and ineligible claims for Medicaid reimbursements” through the Texas Women’s Health Program, according to Johnson’s federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in 2009, but only made public for the first time Friday, alleges that the affiliate filed at least 87,075 false, fraudulent, or ineligible claims with the Texas Women’s Health Program, raking in reimbursements totaling more than $5.7 million.
Johnson told LifeSiteNews that she filed the lawsuit to “expose the corruption” at Planned Parenthood and “to show the taxpayer how their money is being spent at Planned Parenthood.”
“The ultimate goal,” she said, “would be to shut down this affiliate, which is responsible for running the largest abortion clinic in the Western hemisphere. And hopefully that would prompt additional investigations into other Planned Parenthood-equipped affiliates.”
The lawsuit claims that Planned Parenthood held a meeting in late 2008 or early 2009 to inform its clinic directors that it had been falsely billing the Texas WHP program since January 1, 2007. Johnson says that when she asked “What are we going to do about” the money that Planned Parenthood had improperly received, her supervisor answered, “Well, we are going to hope we don’t get caught.”
The suit claims clinic managers were told to continue to bill for ineligible products and services, and that they continued to pre-select, purge, and falsify patient charts, changing them after the fact to make them appear legitimate.
“Americans deserve to know if their hard-earned tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it,” said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton, whose firm is representing Johnson in the case. “No matter where a person stands on abortion, everyone should agree that Planned Parenthood has to play by the same rules as everyone else. It certainly isn’t entitled to a penny of public funds, especially if it is committing Medicaid fraud.”
ADF attorneys filed the suit under a federal law that allows “whistleblowers” with inside information to expose fraudulent billing by government contractors. By law, such cases must initially be filed under seal and may not be made public while federal and state governments decide whether to join the case.
Johnson, former director of Planned Parenthood’s Bryan/College Station clinic, is suing under the Federal False Claims Act and Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act.
Americans United for Life President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest called the lawsuit “even more evidence that the American taxpayer is being defrauded by Planned Parenthood.”
“This case bravely brought by AUL’s Senior Advisor Abby Johnson is more evidence of Planned Parenthood’s harmful and dishonest practices and cannot be ignored,” said Yoest. “With such evidence consistently building, the American public deserves answers.”
AUL was behind a comprehensive report showing evidence of nearly $100 million in fraud by Planned Parenthood that sparked a Congressional investigation.
Two federal whistleblower lawsuits in California and Texas charge even more affiliates with Medicaid fraud in the tens of millions of dollars.
Karen Reynolds of Lufkin, Texas, worked more than 10 years at Planned Parenthood. In her court complaint, she charges PPGC with “billing for medical services not rendered, billing for unwarranted medical services, billing for services not covered by Medicaid, and creating false information in medical records which was material to billing for medical services.”
Another former Planned Parenthood employee, P. Victor Gonzalez, who was chief financial officer for Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, claimed in a 2010 lawsuit that PPLA paid “$225,695.65 for Ortho Tri-Cyclen birth control pills, yet billed the government $918,084 – for a profit of $692,388.35.” These and other actions, which he said deliberately violated the False Claims Act (FCA), amounted to $100 million in financial impropriety.
“We are very confident that there will be more cases that will come to light after people read the complaint from these three cases,” Johnson said, “and hopefully they will be able to bring forward additional information.”
Pro-life ping!
Abby is the James O’Keefe of the pro-life movement.
ping
sounds like time for RICO
You mena sounds like time for another insane wag the dog event.
Cue the oppressed minority women in 3, 2, 1 -
Hope she can use this lawsuit to bury PP in an unconsecrated grave. After putting a silver spike through its heartless heart.
Great news. Abby is an inspiration to us all.
This will throw a wrench in Obama’s scheme to garner support from women, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2857407/posts
Please stay safe, Abby.
Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood is so entwined with government agencies, that no one will be held responsible or go to jail for fraud. It will be labled as a “simple accounting error” even though the taxpayers have eaten the cost once again.
If she can find a decent lawyer, they’ll need a court on Mars.
Filed in 09 but only made public now? Wha?
Leftists are all criminals. The Democrat Party makes the Mafia look like choirboys.
That’s answered in the article.
Well, she had a boyfriend and she was late one month and decided to go to Planned Parenthood to find out if she was pregnant.
They gave her a test and then came back with the results. Before they would tell her the news, they badgered her about how expensive and inconvenient a baby would be and she would periodically ask them what the tests said.
They continued about what a nuisance it would be in her life if she had to carry a baby. Finally the girl could take no more and she said "Listen, if I'm pregnant, I'm going to keep the baby - now tell me the damned test results!"
It was negative. She wasn't pregnant.
I told her the only reason they had for not telling her flat out that she wasn't pregnant was that they were trying to sell her an abortion she didn't need. I suspect PP does this all the time. After all, how is the woman going to know that the abortion was unnecessary after it was "performed"?
That's one more reason why they have fought Texas' sonogram law. If the sonogram finds no baby, how can they sell an abortion?
Anybody who ever said that Planned Parenthood and abortion was about "women's health" was lying thru their teeth.
Right, Nancy?
I just finished her book Unplanned late last night. It’s a great read.
If the government doesn't sue them, you can sue them in the government's name. If you win, you get to keep about 30% of the damages.
The FCA includes a provision for treble damages, and other damages. $5.7 million in fraudulent claims could result in $30-50 million in damges, easily. Her 20% is not bad for reporting them, although she needs the DOJ to prosecute them or else the has to prosecute them as the relator.
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Good for her. Insiders leaving the nest of vipers and then helping to destroy it, very good.
Nice analysis. Puts Obama in a tough spot—does he
1) instruct Eric Holder to prosecute the case and risk letting down his “base” at a critical time (see Hanoi Jane, Glorias Allred and Steinhem, Ms. Fluke, Anita Dunn et al) or
2) does he abandon Abby and make hire her own lawyer to litigate the case against a powerful multi-million dollar giant.
My bet is 2)—he cannot risk alienating the baby murder industry $$.
There’s a former abortion clinc owner from Dallas named Carol Everett (I think) who has stated that her clinic did indeed perform D&Cs on women who were not pregnant for the sole purpose of selling an abortion. Very sick.
Yes, you are right. This garbage does indeed happen.
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