HHS rejects Indiana Medicaid plan over Planned Parenthood ban

HHS rejects Indiana Medicaid plan over Planned Parenthood ban

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WASHINGTON | The Health and Human Services Department rejected changes in Indiana's Medicaid plan Wednesday, saying it illegally bans funding for Planned Parenthood, and sought to make clear that a similar fate awaits other states that pass legislation barring any qualified health care provider.

In a letter sent to Indiana's Medicaid director, Medicaid Administrator Donald M. Berwick said Indiana's plan will improperly bar beneficiaries from receiving services. Federal law requires Medicaid beneficiaries to be able to obtain services from any qualified provider.

"Medicaid programs may not exclude qualified health care providers from providing services that are funded under the program because of a provider's scope of practice," Berwick wrote in a letter to Patricia Cassanova, the director of Indiana's office of Medicaid Policy and Planning. "Such a restriction would have a particular effect on beneficiaries' ability to access family planning providers."

I hope Mitch has still got some of that Tollroad money tucked away...
Indiana Will Enforce Illegal Law To Defund Planned Parenthood, May Lose All Medicaid Funds

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Indiana plans to defy an Obama administration letter and continue barring Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding — a move that, if continued, could cost the state more than $4 billion in Medicaid funds. [...]

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration plans to continue implementing the legislation, signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels last month, that defunded Planned Parenthood.

“For now, our lawyers advise us that we must continue to follow the law the Indiana General Assembly passed,” says Marcus Barlow, director of communications for FSSA. “We will seek guidance from the attorney general on how to proceed going forward.”

Rich James wrote a scathing article about the Republicans who sponsored this legislation. Here's part of it-
But some of Indiana’s Republican legislators spoke from on high when they voted to stop the flow of federal money to Planned Parenthood, strongly suggesting that “never again in Indiana will your tax dollars be used for an abortion.”And then those legislators returned home and some did more than suggest that federal dollars never again will be used for abortions in Indiana.
No, some of them flat out said it. Yeah, they lied.This wasn’t really about abortion, it was about political gain.And they didn’t care what happened to low-income women who no longer had the medical services of Planned Parenthood, including access to family planning — yeah, that includes birth control — and advice on abortion. Shame on them.What the Health and Human Services Department told Indiana legislators is that they have no right to dictate which providers women can and can’t use. In other words, don’t try to play God.But Indiana Republicans aren’t the sanctimonious lot they want you to believe.No, they knew from the start what they were doing was wrong. But they obviously didn’t care.The Indiana Legislative Services Agency writes the bills that are sponsored by representatives and senators. They advise legislators about legalities and fiscal impact.The LSA in an April 19 letter to Indiana legislators, said, “While states are permitted to waive a recipient’s freedom of choice of a provider to implement managed care, restricting freedom of choice with respect to providers of family planning services is prohibited.”
I think the Republicans will lose their majority in both the House and the Senate in 2012. It's almost like they are trying to piss off large blocks of voters.

A win for the good guys and another wingnut decision goes down in flames..
Court blocks Indiana defunding of Planned Parenthood

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INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana stepped between women and their physicians when it enacted a law that blocked Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood just because the organization provides abortions, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago effectively upheld decisions by a district judge and a Medicaid review panel that found the 2011 law denied patients the right to choose their own health care provider.

"This is not about an abortion case. This is a case about Medicaid services — non-abortion-related services — and the attempt by the state of Indiana to punish Planned Parenthood and its clients from receiving non-abortion health services merely because Planned Parenthood, without any sort of state or federal money or any Medicaid funds, also provides abortions," Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, said at a news conference in Indianapolis following Tuesday's decision. The ACLU argued the case on behalf of Planned Parenthood.

The ruling will likely have little impact on Planned Parenthood's operations in Indiana as funding to its clinics has been largely uninterrupted since Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a law attempting to cut the organization off in May 2011. Daniels' spokeswoman did not respond to phone requests for comment Tuesday.

The 2011 law made Indiana the first state to deny Planned Parenthood the Medicaid funds for general health services including cancer screenings. The family planning organization immediately challenged the law with help from the ACLU. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt blocked the state from enforcing the law in June 2011.

The state appealed that order, arguing that federal law says Medicaid cannot be used to cover abortions in most circumstances and that the program indirectly funds the procedures by providing money to Planned Parenthood.

On Tuesday, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld the core portion of Pratt's order, saying the Indiana law effectively stamps on a person's right to choose their doctors.

"The defunding law excludes Planned Parenthood from Medicaid for a reason unrelated to its fitness to provide medical services, violating its patients' statutory right to obtain medical care from the qualified provider of their choice," the ruling said.