Branstad sees limits for defunding Planned Parenthood in Iowa

DES MOINES - Gov. Terry Branstad said Tuesday that while he's working with GOP legislators to 'look at whatever we can do” to cut off government funding for Planned Parenthood in Iowa, he won't break the law or invite a lawsuit by arbitrarily denying it grant money without legal cause.

At the same time, Democrat Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs, the state Senate majority leader, warned that dismantling an agency that provides family planning means Iowa 'really ends up with more abortions, not less.”

Gronstal said the split-control Legislature could be in for 'a very long session” if majority House Republicans and their Senate counterparts try to remove Planned Parenthood as a certified Medicaid provider during fiscal 2017 budget negotiations that already could be contentious.

Conservative activists and GOP lawmakers are pressuring the Republican governor to take action in halting any government money going even indirectly to Planned Parenthood organizations in Iowa.

The pressure comes amid an outcry over a series of undercover videos released by an anti-abortion organization that purportedly show Planned Parenthood officials discussing harvesting and selling aborted baby organs.

Branstad told reporters Tuesday he has been advised by the Iowa Attorney General's Office - an office held by Democrat Tom Miller - that the state does not have grounds for removing Planned Parenthood as an enrolled Medicaid provider because the agency has not violated responsibilities under the grants they receive from the state.

'The only way that I could, as an executive, terminate that would be for cause and we'd have to show that, and so far nobody has given me the evidence that we have cause to do that,” Branstad said. 'Failing to do that would put us in a situation where they would sue us and we would lose.”

Branstad said he has told GOP lawmakers and others pressuring him that he shares their concerns 'but I also need to follow the law and I'm advised by the Attorney General's Office that we can't just arbitrarily deny them the opportunity to be one of the grantees under this program.”

State officials say no state money goes for abortion services.

Iowa's Medicaid program has 43,000 enrolled providers, including Planned Parenthood agencies, which are reimbursed for approved clinical services such as exams, birth control pills and sterilizations provided to Medicaid members, according to the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland was paid $2.64 million in Medicaid payments by Iowa Medicaid Enterprise in fiscal 2015 - with the state share totaling $215,273.

Another $210,372 in awards were paid to Planned Parenthood agencies last fiscal year as part of the Community Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program, in which community coalitions provide teen pregnancy prevention educational programming.

Branstad is pushing a Medicaid modernization program that would shift services to about 560,000 Iowa Medicaid recipients to a managed care approach beginning Jan. 1. He declined to say whether the new model could impact Planned Parenthood's status in Iowa, saying only 'we are looking at what we can do working with the Legislature on this issue in the future.”

In addressing the Older Iowans Legislature on Tuesday, Branstad said the managed care approach will move from a fee-for-service approach to one that offers incentives for providers, physicians, prescribers and other patient-care network components to better coordinate to improve quality, accountability and budget predictability.

For his part, Gronstal expressed concern over 'the governor's rush to privatize Medicaid,” saying legislators would like to slow down the process to better understand what it entails.