Planned Parenthood Arizona resumes services for Medicaid patients

Planned Parenthood Arizona clinics are once again providing care for patients insured through Medicaid. Services for Medicaid patients had been on pause since September.

It was already illegal to use Medicaid funds to pay for abortions. But H.R.1, the Republican tax and spending mega-bill passed last summer, included a provision that also barred Medicaid reimbursements for STI checks or other types of reproductive health care performed at some abortion clinics.

Abortion opponents had hoped Republicans in Congress would extend the provision, but lawmakers did not agree to an extension before the provision reached its one-year expiration date. So abortion clinics were allowed to resume billing Medicaid for services this week.

Planned Parenthood Arizona CEO April Donovan said lower-income patients insured through AHCCCS, the state’s Medicaid program, are already returning.

“I think with the influx we’re seeing in phone calls right now to our offices that those patients are coming back very quickly,” Donovan said.

Donovan said AHCCCS members make up only about 10% of Planned Parenthood Arizona’s patients. But she said the organization’s clinics had seen a decrease in patient volumes and revenue while the provision was in effect.

Nationwide, other Planned Parenthood branches saw bigger impacts. Planned Parenthood reports nearly 30 of its clinics in other states closed in the last year after losing Medicaid funds.