Governor Mary Fallin Calls for Termination of Planned Parenthood Contracts in Oklahoma

By Robin Dorner
Editor in Chief

Today, Governor Mary Fallin announced she has requested that the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) terminate its contracts with the two Planned Parenthood affiliates operating in the state because of their “high rate of billing errors.”

Fallin urged OHCA Chief Executive Officer Nico Gomez to consider appropriately terminating contracts with Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma in Oklahoma City and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland in Tulsa. She also asked Gomez to recommend terminating contracts with “similar providers.” 

In a statement to the press, Planned Parenthood said, “Governor Fallin's letter is premature and incredibly disappointing. The fact is that Planned Parenthood serves thousands of Oklahomans each year, and it's wrong to downplay the vital preventive health and reproductive health services we provide.”­

According to the Governor’s office, in 2015, the state paid the two Planned Parenthood affiliates $100,145 for 19,546 claims; the vast majority of Planned Parenthood services qualify for a 90 percent federal match, making the total payment slightly more than $1 million. In 2014, the state paid $204,631 for 36,741 claims; federal matching funds made the total slightly more than $2 million.

These “state and federal funds” are Medicaid dollars. Planned Parenthood facilities are certified providers for Medicaid. These are for services provided to women in need of women’s healthcare services.

The governor earlier this year asked the OHCA to review Planned Parenthood’s operations were reviewed earlier this year by the state to ensure no state funds were being misused. The review of the two affiliates yielded that no improper use of state Medicaid funds, but allegedly showed a billing error rate of 20.3 percent rate at one and a 14.2 percent error rate at the other.

“The Governor asked the OHCA to review the state's contracts over billing issues due to several states having over-billing issues over the past couple of years,” said Michael McNutt, spokesperson for Governor Fallin. “The Governor thought this was a high rate of error for a government contract. She felt this was unacceptable for any state provider.”

McNutt didn’t know which city had the higher or lower percentage of errors.

Planned Parenthood said in their statement, “The findings of these audits are a normal part of the process in reviewing health care reimbursement. Often, it is simply a matter of submitting additional documentation that supports the request for full Medicaid reimbursement. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma are currently reviewing the results of the audits and both agencies have every intention of responding through the appropriate channels once we have.”

McNutt denied that this call for termination of contracts has anything to do with recent national news regarding Planned Parenthood practices.

Planned Parenthood affiliates operate in about six metropolitan locations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Interruption of payment to this agency would affect operations, thus interfering with a woman’s ability to have a free choice of healthcare provider services should they wish to continue their healthcare at Planned Parenthood.  

Fallin indicated that the “more than 120 other metropolitan and rural health care providers in the state…provide a broader spectrum of health care services than Planned Parenthood’s metropolitan locations.” However, some of them do not provide all of the services at the same costs to women should Planned Parenthood be affected to the point they are forced to close their doors.

Until Planned Parenthood has a chance to “audit the audit,” so to speak, we hope women still have the option to choose the healthcare provider they want.

After all, isn’t freedom the American way?

 The Gayly – 11/19/2015 @ 5:10 p.m.