Is the recent news of the Planned Parenthood’s national office’s decision to disaffiliate with Planned Parenthood Golden Gate a one time “rare occurrence” or is there a pattern of fraud, misappropriation of funds, mismanagement going on in an organization which gets millions of tax dollars per year from the government?
In 2008, Planned Parenthood cut ties with several South Florida offices for accusations of “terrible mismanagement and possibly fraud,” alleged sexual harassment against a former CEO, and a rumor that its 2006 annual report was plagiarized:
The July 2, 2008 Miami Herald article entitled, Planned Parenthood cuts ties with 5 clinics
reported this:
One of the nation’s best-known groups of health centers has permanently shut down a cluster of clinics in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Planned Parenthood officially severed its ties Monday with five local clinics — four in Broward and one in Boca Raton — whose top administrator has acknowledged a history of “terrible mismanagement and possibly fraud.”
The disaffiliation allowed the national organization to wash its hands of the local chapter once known as Planned Parenthood of South Palm Beach and Broward Counties.
The chapter is dealing with many problems, including harassment complaints and possible misuse of nearly $450,000 — slightly less than they received in public funding in 2005.
“All these issues are now issues that they will have to face without us,” said Karen Ruffato, vice president of operations for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
The attitude has angered Ruth Lynch, the former Broward chapter’s CEO, who said the national organization bailed out before the local chapter could resolve its problems.
Lynch, who replaced former CEO Mary Capobianco in March, said that within two weeks of her arrival she found she could not account for $440,000 of the chapter’s $3 million budget.
“We take responsibility that there was horrible management,” Lynch said. “But that was then. This is now. We have a new board.”
CHAPTER’S PLANS
Lynch said that the chapter’s board of trustees plans to eventually open and continue medical services at the five clinics — in Oakland Park, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Deerfield Beach and Boca Raton — but without the trusted name of Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s most recognized clinics in the field of reproductive heathcare.
“We don’t feel this was simple disaffiliation, we feel this was a hostile takeover,” Lynch said.
“And it was more about the Planned Parenthood trademark than it was about helping the community.”
At least 16,000 people used the five clinics for services such as breast exams, testing for HIV and abortions. In 2005, it received $500,000 in taxpayer funding.
HARSH REVIEW
The disbanding of the relationship ended a months-long back and forth between the Broward chapter and the national organization, which temporarily shut down the clinics in March after delivering a harsh review about the chapter’s administration.
Popular employees were fired. An employee alleged sexual harassment against a former CEO, Capobianco. The local board was investigating a rumor that its 2006 annual report was plagiarized.
SHUT DOWN
Ruffato said Planned Parenthood wanted to disaffiliate from the Broward chapter as soon as possible.
By March, the clinics were temporarily shut down.
They began the process in April to permanently strip the five clinics of the Planned Parenthood name.
Instead, Ruffato said they entrusted the more-reputable Planned Parenthood of Greater Miami, Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast to open one clinic in Broward and one in Boca Raton.
Ruffato said the Greater Miami chapter is one of the country’s best.
‘UNFORTUNATE’
“This is a very rare situation and a very unfortunate situation,” Ruffato said. “And as sad and as hard as moving through a disaffiliation is, I believe our ultimate responsibility is to the mission. And ultimately we need to make sure that your community clinic has the best healthcare and meets our high standards.”
For now, Planned Parenthood is concentrating on replacing the five clinics with at least two, said Judith Selzer, spokeswoman for the Greater Miami chapter. Officers plan to select one site by next month.
Selzer said they will add clinics “as quickly and swiftly as the community needs.”
The chapter plans to include Broward residents on the staff and board of trustees.
Said Selzer: “We’re poised and we’re ready to do this.”
A 2007 Planned Parenthood of South Palm Beach and Broward Counties’ annual report showed that the CEO CEO Mary Capobianco , made $108,978.00
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December of 2010
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Newschannel 3 obtained a management letter presented to the board of directors at Planned Parenthood of Southwest Michigan after an audit by Flegal and Tibbitts CPAs in May of 2010. The letter outlined several key problems.
“Bank statements in some instances were accumulated (by the director of finance Rene Davis) for (up to six months) before they were reconciled.”
CPAs that Newschannel 3 has contacted say not reconciling accounts monthly means errors or any misuse of funds is difficult to spot. The letter also says;
“Several transactions indicated the expenses were employee’s personal expenses that were not charged to the employee.”
Some personal expenses, such as household bills were mis-coded by Davis and paid as company expenses. Finally the management letter says;
“We found were changes in withholding for the Director of Finance had been made with no approval (by the CEO as required).”
In all, sources tell us that Davis took around $5,000. Planned Parenthood admits that Davis took money for inappropriate uses, but disputes the amount.
Planned Parenthood CEO Rev. Mark Pawlowski gave us a statement, saying;
“It came to our attention and we were duly diligent in investigating it. The employee faced disciplinary action and is no longer responsible for any financial duties within the organization.”
But Davis was not fired, instead she was appointed as Chief Operating Officer, this at a time when many other Planned Parenthood employees lost their jobs as a result of cutbacks.
Planned Parenthood says Davis paid back all the money and no charges have been filed against her. Planned Parenthood CEO Rev. Mark Pawlowski is in charge of hiring and firing, and has been for fourteen years.
Now, the board of directors is searching for a new CEO. Some board members have told Newschannel 3 the search for a replacement was prompted by the handling of Davis’ situation. Pawlowski says that’s not true.
Newschannel 3 has requested public documents from Planned Parenthood to learn more about how much money was taken.
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H/T Texas Watchdog
Planned Parenthood of North Texas PAC fined $3,000 for campaign finance violations
Aug 26, 2010 By Mark Lisheron
The Texas Ethics Commission has fined Cary Jennings, the campaign treasurer for Planned Parenthood of North Texas‘ political action committee, $3,000 for failing to disclose spending $26,695 to support four political candidates in the November, 2008 state elections.
The Ethics Commission also found Planned Parenthood of North Texas Action Fund Political Committee had either failed to report or made mistakes with political contribution and expenditure totals on more than 17 monthly reports required by state law.
The political action committee in a November 2008 report said it spent $26,695 for mass mailings the previous month. However, the report failed to say the mailings were made in support of Wendy Davis, who was running for state Senate and Dan Barrett, Carol Kent and Chris Turner, who were running for state House seats, according to the Ethics Commission findings.
The following month, the political action committee reported spending $15,410 in one day to the same company for a blitz of campaign telephone calls on behalf of Davis, Kent, Turner and Robert Miklos, who was running for the House. The Commission took note that this disclosure of candidate support was not reflected on the report’s cover page.
The committee filed 17 corrected campaign finance reports on Sept. 14, 2009. Texas Watchdog has a call in to Planned Parenthood, and will update the blog if we hear back from the group here .
Davis, Kent, Turner and Miklos won their legislative races, while Barrett lost to Republican physician Mark Shelton.
The Ft. Worth Telegraph reported it this way: Planned Parenthood PAC failed to disclose campaign support
Posted Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010
The Planned Parenthood of North Texas Action Fund PAC fouled up 17 monthly campaign expense reports and omitted an expenditure of about $27,000 that supported four local candidates for the Legislature.
The Texas Ethics Commission posted a report this week that said the political action committee failed to identify the candidates and improperly disclosed expenditures on their behalf.
An amended finance report filed by the PAC shows that the candidates supported by the mailings were Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, and House candidates Chris Turner, Dan Barrett and Carol Kent, all Democrats.
The committee’s treasurer, Cary Jennings, declined to comment. He was fined $3,000, according to a commission order.
The PAC has made internal changes, Director Kathryn Allen said.
“We feel we have fixed the problem and will not make this mistake going forward,” she said. “We weren’t trying to conceal our support for those candidates.”
At question was $26,695 paid on Oct. 14, 2008. The PAC corrected filings in September 2009 to show that it paid Gold Communications to send mailers that benefited the four legislative candidates. The original November 2008 monthly report disclosed the expense but not that the money directly benefited candidates.
The commission found the error when examining a complaint about monthly reports. Between April 2008 and August 2009, the PAC filed reports that inaccurately stated the balance of cash on hand. Balances changed on average by about $6,700. The two largest changes to the contribution balance were a decrease of $25,100 and a decrease of $44,560.
Once the mistake was found, the PAC filed corrected reports within a week, Allen said.
“Our PAC is fairly new, and being new to reporting, we had some technical errors that were found,” Allen said. “They were related to cash on hand. Those have been corrected.”
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/26/2428025/planned-parenthood-pac-failed.html#ixzz0xobkyfYd
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In 2009
An Audit Shows Planned Parenthood Owes Thousands, sources say debt stands at $1 million
According to this story by KFOX: Planned Parenthood Owes $154K To UMC from November 13, 2009
EL PASO, Texas — KFOX has confirmed Friday that Planned Parenthood Center of El Paso owes more than $150,000 to the county’s University Medical Center.
Through an open records request, KFOX has learned that PPCEP owes UMC $154,814. Sources close to PPCEP claim their total debt stands at more than $1 million.
University Medical Center declined any comment on PPCEP’s current balance. They did not disclose what type of contract was established.
As KFOX reported, a state audit found that PPCEP violated its state contracts after it requested reimbursement for bills that were never paid.
State representatives have told KFOX that it is unclear if the money will ever be collected, and PPCEP is currently under bankruptcy protection.
KFOX has not been able to confirm PPCEP’s bankruptcy status
View Story Here:
Inspector General Report Here
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In 2010
Planned Parenthood Golden Gate’s former employees blame the organization’s longstanding pattern of financial mismanagement, former PPGG CEO, Dian Harrison. Because of this, the national Planned Parenthood organization has announced it will divorce itself from the networks of clinics that serve patients in five Bay Area counties, citing fiscal and administrative problems with the local organization. Effective Sept. 3, 2010, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate must operate under another name, a representative of the national organization said that Planned Parenthood Golden Gate had failed to uphold the “standards and guidelines” by which each separately incorporated affiliate must abide, but that the details of the situation were confidential.
“They were not meeting our standards for administrative and fiscal management,” said Karen Ruffato, vice president of affiliate services for the national organization.
A report in the Bay Citizen:
The most recent tax documents filed with the I.R.S. suggest that PPGG has not only been losing money in recent years, but is in financial disarray. For the tax year ending June 30, 2009, it showed a loss of $2.8 million.
Yet, from financial information for the previous year, it’s unclear just how much money the organization lost because it filed three separate sets of numbers with the I.R.S. In the filings, losses ranged between nearly $1.9 and $2.8 million. Two different accounting firms signed off on the various filings.
Tax documents also show that the organization’s financial problems did not start with the catastrophic recession and California’s fiscal crisis, which has delayed MediCal reimbursements from the state. Tax documents for the year ending June 30, 2007 show that the organization lost $181,000 that year.
Yet, the organization’s fiscal problems date farther back. Documents associated with a 2004 accreditation review of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate show that the local affiliate did not meet the national federation’s financial standards for its affiliates. Of nine indicators of financial health, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate was given a “not met” rating for five of them. For instance, the affiliate had only 11.4 days of cash on hand, as opposed to the required 60 days.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America executives refused to comment on the accreditation documents on the grounds that they’re internal and confidential.
On Wednesday, the charitable trusts division of the state’s attorney general’s office sent a warning letter to the Planned Parenthood Golden Gate Action Fund, the political advocacy and public policy arm of the affiliate, because the organization has failed to file copies of its tax documents with that that office for at least 10 years.
“We do not have any reports on file for them,” Rebecca MacLaren from the attorney general’s press office wrote in an e-mail.
The warning cautioned that if the organization fails to file those forms within 30 days, its registration would be suspended and officers would be personally liable for late fees.
In the letter, the clinicians detail a myriad of problems in the organization, including their concerns about “the misappropriation and mismanagement of PPGG’s funds.” The letter accuses the executive staff of profligate spending during lean times:
It is apparent that while Medical Services has been mandated and has complied with financial reform and cost savings, the Executive Administrative members have failed to adhere to their own mandate for financial restrictions. Executive staff’s personal expenditures are excessive and are not aligned with the mandatory fiscal restrictions. Flagrant use of PPGG funds to pay for personal belongings, personal services and exorbitant technology products is seemingly unchallenged and not subject to the same financial scrutiny that clinic supplies and staff salaries are, for example.
When Harrison replied to their concerns in a letter dated November 14, 2008, she assured the clinicians and doctors that administration was feeling the fiscal pain, too: “Administration has temporarily or permanently frozen a number of positions, budgets were cut, expenses were halted for a period of time and office supplies were not purchased,” she wrote.
And from the San Francisco Bay Guardian:
Former employees saw problems coming at Planned Parenthood Golden Gate
By Rebecca / San Francisco Bay Guardian
Created 08/11/2010 – 4:08pm
This week’s announcement that Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) was severing ties with Planned Parenthood Golden Gate (PPGG) came as no surprise to some former employees, who have for months been trying to sound the alarm that the chapter was being mismanaged, had major financial problems, and was in a steep decline that could threaten important reproductive care services that low-income women rely on.
A former PPGG employee with knowledge of the organization’s internal affairs described a longstanding pattern of financial mismanagement when former president and CEO Dian Harrison was at the helm. There was widespread concern about spending on expensive marketing campaigns and lavish functions, the person said, and a high level of employee turnover and discontent.
Warning signs of financial difficulties surfaced at least a year ago. Dan Cohen, a spokesperson of the Packard Foundation — a major donor to PPGG — told the Guardian that Packard awarded PPGG a 12-month, $30,000 “organizational effectiveness” grant, which will expire in September. The grant “allows an organization to select a talented, external provider to help them think through some of these challenges,” Cohen explained. The Packard Foundation also awarded a 3-year grant for general operating support for $800,000, which will also expire next month.
Another former employee told the Guardian that she would love to discuss internal problems, but was made to sign a confidentiality agreement upon leaving the organization.
Therese Wilson, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate — who took over PPGG when Harrison left last year on medical leave — did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
An internal PPGG document provided to the Guardian displays the agency’s on-hand cash reserves as compared with other affiliates, suggesting that the reserve ratios were at or below the minimum required by the national Planned Parenthood federation for all but one year from 1998 to 2007 — and well below that of other affiliates of similar size. That is a key requirement for meeting accreditation standards.
When we asked Elizabeth Toledo, a PPFA representative, about this apparent pattern she said she could not comment because she had not seen the documents. She also said the accreditation reviews were confidential. “Understanding the true financial picture for health care providers takes a very in-depth evaluation,” Toledo said. “PPFA and PPGG were working together over the last few years to resolve fiscal challenges.”
Despite delays at the state level in awarding nonprofit funding and the loss of support from the national organization, Toledo and a union representative for PPGG employees both said they believe the clinics will continue serving patients under a different name.
“They plan to stay open, and employees are planning to stay,” said SEIU Local 1021 representative Sarah Sherpun-Zimmer, who has been a union rep for PPGG employees for the last two years. “Folks are really happy working there and they feel like it’s going in a good direction.”
PPGG operated eight clinics, which will lose their Planned Parenthood accreditation Sept. 3, effectively severing their ties to a trusted entity that thousands of low-income women rely upon for birth control, abortion procedures, and other forms of reproductive health care. PPGG operates clinics in San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, Sonoma, Marin, and Mendocino counties, serving about 55,000 women per year.
Roughly 92 percent of the clients they serve live at or below the federal poverty line, according to PPGG’s 2008 annual report.
Planned Parenthood affiliates Mar Monte and Shasta Diablo are in the process of hatching plans for taking over some of the eight affected clinics or otherwise growing their own operations to cover any gaps in service area, according to Toledo. She said neighboring affiliates are in a position financially to be able to cover a wider territory and added that they have been in “expansion mode,” adding new clinics over the past couple years.
“It’s unusual to have a disaffiliation,” she said. “But it’s not unusual for national committees to have a reallocation of service area. That part is well-practiced.” Toledo added that “Every effort possible will be made” to ensure continuity of care.
In a report of the top paid Planned Parenthood employees for 2008, Harrison made the list when the California Catholic Daily reported this
Dian Harrison, President and Chief Executive Officer
Salary: $274,438
Benefits: $18,976
Expense Account: $11,340
Total Compensation: $304,754
Here Harrison brags about her rich and lavish new design for the abortion clinic she managed !
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Planned Parenthood’s missing millions, New GAO report reveals disturbing financial discrepancies
According to Rita Dillar , a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on federal tax money funneled into Planned Parenthood and similar organizations raises more questions than it answers about the nation’s largest abortion chain.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s (PPFA) audits show the organization spent just $657.1 million between 2002 and 2008 from federal government grants and programs, but the abortion behemoth’s own annual reports show that it took in $2.3 billion from government grants and programs during the same time period.
That’s not pocket change. Why the discrepancy?
The report (the first of its kind since 2002) was released in response to a request from 31 U.S. senators and representatives and in an atmosphere increasingly hostile to abortion. Not surprisingly. then, its findings are fueling an escalating outcry to defund Planned Parenthood.
Since 2009, at least five nationwide polls have confirmed that a majority of Americans consider themselves pro-life.
Someone, then, needs to explain to all those people why $2.3 billion in tax dollars have been doled out to an organization that admits to systematically having killed more than 1.8 million pre-born babies between 2002 and 2008 and then reports it only spent $657.1 million in federal dollars.
Has Planned Parenthood managed to tuck away megamillions of our tax dollars, seemingly unnoticed? Or is that much of its government funding coming from sources other than the federal government? Or is there a problem with the way Planned Parenthood is reporting its expenditure of our federal monies?
In just two weeks, Planned Parenthood will complete its 2009-10 fiscal year. Yet it still has not released its annual report for its 2008-09 fiscal year. In light of the discrepancy revealed in this GAO report, we must ask: What is Planned Parenthood trying to keep secret?
It’s time for Planned Parenthood to come clean – if such a thing is possible.
Yes, Planned Parenthood has other sources of government funding – state and local – but historical data indicate it is simply not believable that such a large amount of its funding is from local and state sources.
GAO reports for prior years show that from 1997 through 2001, PPFA expenditures of federal money accounted for an average of 72 percent of its government income.
Yet this new report shows PPFA expenditures of federal money making up an average of just 32 percent of its government income from 2002 through 2008.
Planned Parenthood’s abortion business has increased year after year in lock step with its increasing government funding, as evidenced by the included chart.
Obviously, every penny Planned Parenthood receives feeds its abortion business in one way or another.
For instance, Title X money is not to be used for abortions. However, according to Abby Johnson, former director of Planned Parenthood’s abortion center in Bryan/College Station, Texas, it is used to gain the trust of women in minority neighborhoods in order to bring them into Planned Parenthood facilities, supposedly for health care, and then persuade them to become Planned Parenthood birth-control clients. Then, when the birth control fails, the organization has a built-in minority clientele for abortion, which Ms. Johnson says is Planned Parenthood’s big cash cow.
Planned Parenthood affiliates continue to build huge abortion megacenters in minority neighborhoods in an attempt to polish its image and gear up for the veritable tsunami of clients that will be headed its way under President Obama’s health care plan, which earmarks $11 billion for community health centers.
Is there no end to the amount of our hard-earned tax dollars that will be poured down the bottomless pit known as Planned Parenthood to quench this social-engineering agency’s thirst for sexualizing our children, stealing their souls and dumping the mutilated bodies of our children’s children into our nation’s waste bins?
On May 14, Gallup produced its third consecutive poll showing that most Americans identify themselves as pro-life. It is unthinkable that American citizens continue to be forced to fund, by the sweat of their brows, the organization that commits one-third of our nation’s abortions.
American Life League stands with pro-life legislators and hundreds of thousands of grass-roots organizations and activists in calling for accountability for the money Planned Parenthood has received from the federal government and in demanding the immediate defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Rita Diller is the national director of Stop Planned Parenthood (Stopp), a project of American Life League.
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A 2010 article in the Philadelphia Bulletin headlined: Federal Funds Misappropriated By New Jersey Family Planning, Planned Parenthood By KATHLEEN GILBERT on August 24, 2010 reads:
TRENTON, N.J. – Audits by the United States Inspector General (IG) have uncovered that family planning clinics, including Planned Parenthood, have improperly taken Medicaid reimbursement for family planning services.
The audits were released by New Jersey Right to Life (NJ RTL) as pro-abortion state lawmakers lobby not only to restore $7.5 million in state family planning funds, but to acquire a federal waiver that would permanently secure the 90 percent Medicaid reimbursement rate for family planning clinics. Pro-life Governor Chris Christie has withdrawn a waiver application and, last month, vetoed an attempt to restore the state funding, a move lawmakers are angling to override.
While the state of New Jersey has taken responsibility for the incorrect recording of services, the audits leave open the question of how far the clinics themselves were complicit in the misappropriation of funds. The reports show that a total of almost $3 million was misappropriated over the course of 2001-2005.
One report, issued in 2008, singled out Planned Parenthood providers as guilty of billing all claims to Medicaid as “family planning,” including services that did not meet federal criteria for the 90 percent reimbursement rate. The normal Medicaid reimbursement rate is about 50 percent. In that report, the state was urged to reimburse almost $600,000 in Medicaid funds, and to amend their billing processes.
Instead of services that “prevent or delay pregnancy,” which are eligible for the waiver, the report found that services such as treatment for swollen ankles and a rash were listed as “family planning,” as well as other services administered to patients well beyond childbearing age. Others simply lacked documentation.
Another 2008 report found New Jersey to have improperly received reimbursement for 111 of 161 examined claims, requesting over $160,000 to be returned. A 2007 report requested the return of over $2.2 million thanks to the state of New Jersey incorrectly designating 227 National Drug Codes as related to family planning.
“The facts cannot be denied,” said New Jersey Right to Life in a press release. “Planned Parenthood’s supporters not only want to use $7.5M in taxpayer dollars to fund these family planning clinics, they also want the state of New Jersey to permanently apply for a federal waiver to reimburse family planning clinics 90 percent for every Medicaid service they provide despite the clinics’ history of improperly billing Medicaid and contributing to the nearly $3M in fees calculated by the Federal Government to be refunded to them.”
“Taxpayers should be outraged”
NJ RTL Executive Director Marie Tasy expressed disappointment that the IG audits went unnoticed as Planned Parenthood gained favor with the media during its fight for more taxpayer funds. “It’s sinful that the press did not do their homework when this issue was being used in the news,” Ms. Tasy told LifeSiteNews.com, adding that the arrogance behind the misappropriation “is astounding.”
Whether it’s Planned Parenthood or the state’s fault, she said, the audits reveal a “systematic abuse” that funnels taxpayer cash towards family planning.
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Kansas high court returns Planned Parenthood case to District Court
By DAVID KLEPPER
The Star’s Topeka correspondent 10/2010
TOPEKA | After a long delay, a criminal prosecution of Planned Parenthood’s Overland Park clinic may proceed, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri faces 107 charges that it falsified records and performed illegal abortions. Phill Kline filed the charges in 2007 when he served as Johnson County district attorney.
The case had been tied up in a dispute over subpoenas, but the high court returned it to the District Court, where it may proceed.
The charges against Planned Parenthood included 23 felonies. Kline argued that the group’s clinic performed illegal late-term abortions and falsified or forged documents to make it appear the abortions were legal.
Planned Parenthood denies the allegation and insists it doesn’t perform abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy, the legal threshold for late-term abortions.
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Also in 2010 , the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled in favor of the American Center for Law and Justice’s (ACLJ) client in a multi-million dollar fraud case against Planned Parenthood (PP) affiliates in California. ACLJ attorneys are representing a former employee of the PP affiliate in Los Angeles, who is now a federal whistleblower. A federal district court in California had dismissed the case, but the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, dated yesterday, reinstates the lawsuit.
“The question on appeal was whether the former PP employee is a proper whistleblower under the False Claims Act”
“This is a tremendous victory,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. “While this case is by no means over, winning this appeal means we have gotten the federal claim over the threshold hurdles and can now get down to the heart of this case: the alleged fraud.”
The federal False Claims Act (FCA) forbids government contractors from submitting “false or fraudulent” claims for payment. The FCA also authorizes private individuals to bring suit against the offenders to recover the fraudulently obtained funds.
The allegation in this case is that PP affiliates in California illegally marked up the supposed cost of various birth control drugs when seeking government reimbursement, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of overbilling – at taxpayer expense. State audits in both California and Washington State have found PP affiliates guilty of overbilling.
When a former PP staffer sued the PP affiliates in federal court, charging the defendants with having fraudulently overbilled the state and federal governments in the amount of tens of millions of dollars, a prominent law firm began representing the PP defendants in the case at no cost to the defendants. The PP attorneys asked the federal district court to dismiss the case on technical jurisdictional grounds.
The federal district court accepted their arguments in part, and dismissed the case. ACLJ attorneys then entered the case to handle the appeal.
“The question on appeal was whether the former PP employee is a proper whistleblower under the False Claims Act,” said Sekulow. “We contended that the answer is ‘Yes,’ and now a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit has unanimously agreed with us.”
The ACLJ’s opening brief had dissected and refuted the arguments of PP’s attorneys point by point, explaining why the court of appeals should reverse the lower court’s judgment and reinstate the lawsuit. You can read the ACLJ opening brief here:
ACLJ attorneys subsequently filed a reply brief and two supplemental briefs addressing intervening developments in the law.
Led by Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the American Center for Law and Justice focuses on constitutional law and is based in Washington, D.C. The ACLJ is online at http://www.aclj.org.
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This report by Texas Watchdog from August 26,2010 shows a campaign manager for Planned Parenthood in Texas was fined. Planned Parenthood of North Texas PAC fined $3,000 for campaign finance violations
The Texas Ethics Commission has fined Cary Jennings, the campaign treasurer for Planned Parenthood of North Texas‘ political action committee, $3,000 for failing to disclose spending $26,695 to support four political candidates in the November, 2008 state elections.
The Ethics Commission also found Planned Parenthood of North Texas Action Fund Political Committee had either failed to report or made mistakes with political contribution and expenditure totals on more than 17 monthly reports required by state law.
The political action committee in a November 2008 report said it spent $26,695 for mass mailings the previous month. However, the report failed to say the mailings were made in support of Wendy Davis, who was running for state Senate and Dan Barrett, Carol Kent and Chris Turner, who were running for state House seats, according to the Ethics Commission findings.
The following month, the political action committee reported spending $15,410 in one day to the same company for a blitz of campaign telephone calls on behalf of Davis, Kent, Turner and Robert Miklos, who was running for the House. The Commission took note that this disclosure of candidate support was not reflected on the report’s cover page.
The committee filed 17 corrected campaign finance reports on Sept. 14, 2009. Texas Watchdog has a call in to Planned Parenthood, and will update the blog if we hear back from the group here .
Davis, Kent, Turner and Miklos won their legislative races, while Barrett lost to Republican physician Mark Shelton.
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Spokane’s Planned Parenthood fined by state
10/29/2010 / The Spokesman-Review
Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest will pay the state $345,000 after settling a 2009 audit that uncovered the clinic used incorrect codes and provided insufficient documentation for some claims billed to Medicaid.
The original audit finding estimated the Spokane family-planning organization improperly billed Medicaid more than $629,000 for 333 patient procedures from March 2004 through February 2007.
During that time, the clinic collected about $7.6 million from Medicaid.
Planned Parenthood appealed and a compromise was reached with the state “without any admission of incorrect billing, documentation of payment,” according the Department of Social and Health Services.
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