And they
could wind up owing up to $1.8 billion, which if they are forced to pay back for the fraudulent billing will result in layoffs/closures etc. that will save many thousands of lives.
This is hardly over though. They were just trying to get out of an interlocutory order. The legal posture is what I would call 'in progress,' so I think some of the big tap dancing about the win is over-done.
Quote:
The full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that Planned Parenthood can't sidestep a Medicaid fraud case the way it wanted to. The en banc court held it ' a lower court ruling that the organization's own attorneys aren't immune from a whistleblower lawsuit, sending the case back down to the district court to keep grinding forward.
The underlying case is serious. A whistleblower alleges Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas and Louisiana kept billing Medicaid for services even after both states terminated their eligibility to receive those funds, in the wake of the 2015 undercover videos from the Center for Medical Progress. Texas sued to recover the money, and under the False Claims Act's treble-damages provision, the potential exposure runs to $. .
Planned Parenthood's legal team tried to get an early off-ramp, arguing the attorneys who advised the affiliates to keep billing shouldn't be personally exposed. The full appeals court wasn't interested in bailing them out early. The case, and the billion-dollar question at its center, heads back to the district court where it started.