Because poor women don't need no stinkin' mammograms! BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Anti-abortion group Louisiana Right to Life is calling on Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration to stop paying Planned Parenthood's two clinics in Louisiana for non-abortion health services.
The group cited a Medicaid fraud settlement in Texas, in which Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast agreed to pay $1.4 million for fraudulently overbilling the health program for the poor.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, which also operates in Louisiana, denied any wrongdoing and said it settled the case to avoid releasing patient records.
Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals doesn't have any immediate plans to stop Medicaid reimbursement to Planned Parenthood in response to the Texas case.
DHH spokeswoman Olivia Watkins said Thursday that the health department, the state inspector general and the legislative auditor are reviewing Medicaid billing practices of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, as requested by state lawmakers in a resolution passed earlier this year.
Watkins said Louisiana's Medicaid program paid Planned Parenthood's two clinics in the state $575,000 during the 2012-13 fiscal year that ended June 30, for non-abortion care provided to Medicaid patients.