Clinics will do this by utilizing "fragmentation" or "unbundling" billing to have abortion-related services like counseling or a pre-abortion examination paid for with public dollars, the report found.
Even abortions themselves may be billed to Medicaid. "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," the report noted.
One Nebraska audit found a Planned Parenthood clinic spending federal funds on abortion-related expenses, and physician fees for a doctor who only performed abortions. Over $3,500 in taxpayer funds were used for abortion services there.
Other instances of abuse by clinics included giving prescription drugs to clients without a physician's authorization, "billing for services that were not actually rendered," "duplicate billing," and "failing to pay the bills for which an affiliate had already been reimbursed with taxpayer funds."
In California alone, one 2004 audit found that Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties had overbilled contraceptive and Plan B products by $5.2 million.
"Three federal audits specifically identify Planned Parenthood – and only Planned Parenthood – as the problem in state family planning program overbilling," the report noted.
What should be done about Planned Parenthood?
The organization must be defunded of taxpayer dollars, CLI and ADF both insisted. Also investigations of the organization should examine allegations of clinics "double-dipping" by receiving funds or payments from clients or organizations and still billing Medicaid for those services provided.
Those allegations were made in a previous ADF report on Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen Foundation grants.
Back in August of 2016, the U.S. Government Accountability Office responded to requests by members of Congress and opened an investigation into Planned Parenthood's use of taxpayer funds. A previous GAO investigation found that from 2010-12, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates received over $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars from federal and state funds.
Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider, with over 300,000 abortions performed annually.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) announced Thursday that in budget reconciliation legislation that is under consideration, taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood would be redirected to community health centers that do not provide abortions.
President-Elect Donald Trump made the defunding of Planned Parenthood one of his promises to pro-life voters on the campaign trail in 2016.
Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.