Planned Parenthood resumes Medicaid billing after year of funding cuts

Planned Parenthood and two smaller abortion providers have resumed billing Medicaid for services other than abortion, the Associated Press reported. The restart matters for low-income patients because the funding cutoff was linked by providers to clinic closures and reductions in care such as breast cancer exams and sexually transmitted infection testing.

The AP reported that Medicaid billing was allowed to resume Sunday after being blocked for most of a year under a provision in President Donald Trump’s tax and policy law. The change does not settle the fight over federal abortion policy, and providers told the AP that some services lost during the cutoff may not come back.

Clinics closed during the cutoff

Planned Parenthood said its affiliates shut nearly 30 of about 600 clinics over the past year, with the Medicaid restriction cited as a major factor, according to the AP. The organization also said its affiliates dispensed about 25% fewer packs of birth control pills and performed about 20% fewer breast cancer exams than in the prior year.

Planned Parenthood said many patients, especially in areas where health care is harder to obtain, may have gone without care because of the funding loss, the AP reported. Angela Vasquez-Giroux, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told the AP the cuts also reduced abortion access in some places.

The AP reported that many abortion providers have faced financial pressure since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which allowed state abortion bans to take effect. Clinic closures have occurred in states with abortion bans and restrictions as well as in states without them, according to the AP.

In Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood stopped providing abortions for about a month, then ended its status as an “essential community provider” so it could again seek reimbursement, the AP reported. In Arizona, the organization’s affiliate paused many services for Medicaid-covered patients.

Smaller providers saw different effects

The defunding provision also reached two smaller providers because they were nonprofit family planning organizations that provided abortions and received more than $800,000 a year in Medicaid reimbursements, according to the AP.

Maine Family Planning closed three primary care clinics serving about 1,000 patients in a largely rural state, the AP reported. Evelyn Kieltyka, senior vice president of program services, told the AP that even with assistance, former patients waited an average of four to six months to establish care with new providers.

Kieltyka said the number of abortions provided by Maine Family Planning remained steady, according to the AP. Maine is among the states where state-funded Medicaid covers abortion, the AP reported.

Health Imperatives in Massachusetts did not drop services, and patients may not have noticed the federal change, the AP reported. The state government replaced the Medicaid reimbursements the federal government stopped, and the clinic system also received a grant from Melinda Gates’s foundation, according to the AP. Planned Parenthood said similar state support happened in some form in 14 states.

Some care may return

Planned Parenthood’s Arizona affiliate has announced expanded hours and additional telehealth options after Medicaid billing resumed, the AP reported. Other cuts appear less likely to be reversed.

Kieltyka told the AP that Maine Family Planning does not plan to restore its primary care practices. Michelle Quesada, a communications and marketing executive for the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Florida, told the AP that a closed clinic in Lakeland is not expected to reopen, in part because of concern that Congress or the Trump administration could again cut Medicaid reimbursements.

Abortion opponents are pressing Congress to approve another defunding measure, the AP reported. Kelsey Pritchard, a spokesperson for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told the AP that lawmakers had defunded “Big Abortion” before and should try again, while Planned Parenthood said most general election voters oppose defunding the organization.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.