Wisconsin lawmakers ask for Planned Parenthood audit

A group of Wisconsin law makers is calling for an investigation into family planning centers and Planned Parenthood centers in the state.

The request was sent by 28 Wisconsin State Representatives and 4 State Senators in a letter dated January 22, 2015, to Senator Robert Crowles and Representative Samantha Kerkman, co-chairmen of the non-partisan Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

The two were asked to, “conduct a comprehensive independent audit of Wisconsin’s Medicaid family planning providers including Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (PPWI) .”

The letter details what it calls “red flags” already discovered by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health Services against two family planning facilities, (NEWCAP and Wisconsin Family Planning Health Services) in the state which over-billed the state a combined total of $3.5 million.

The letter states that several other states report, “similar findings with Planned Parenthood and other Medicaid family planning providers.”

They point to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article which states, “All of the family planning clinics, including those run by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, are paid the same rate by the state.”

In response to the previous investigation of the prior family planning facilities, Nicole Safar, director of policy and legal advocacy for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, told the Journal, “We are all doing it the same way.”

The lawmakers write that Planned Parenthood’s statement in that article is troubling, “It is peculiar and deeply troubling,” they said, “that any large recipient of taxpayer dollars would pre-emptively divulge that they are guilty of massively defrauding the government and actively in violation with their billing practices, with no plans to change or reimburse taxpayers–and yet that is precisely what Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is admitting to.”

Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortion and family planning services in Wisconsin with twenty-three locations statewide. They receive $14 million dollars from taxpayers at the federal and state level. If state audits find that Planned Parenthood over billed in the same way as the previous family planning centers, they stand to lose $4.5 million in annual revenue.

Pro-Life Wisconsin said that they applaud this bold legislative effort to root out waste, fraud and abuse in Wisconsin’s Medicaid family planning program.

“It is bad enough that these family planning monies fuel surgical and chemical abortions in our state. It is intolerable that Wisconsin taxpayers are ripped off in the process!” the group wrote.

In partnership with Alliance Defending Freedom, Pro-Life Wisconsin recently coordinated a massive open records request on PPWI through Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services (DHS).

The pro-life group says that the open records request revealed 26 DHS audits of PPWI between 2006 and 2012, uncovering a modest $43,272.80 in over billing.

But, Pro-Life Wisconsin points out that, “These audits were very limited in scope in terms of location, time frame, and type of claims. And all but the last audit were conducted and released under former Gov. Jim Doyle, a pro-abortion Democrat.”