The U.S. Department of Justice submitted a court filing on Friday night to step directly into an ongoing Texas lawsuit accusing Planned Parenthood of Medicaid fraud.
Federal involvement gives the government a direct role in the False Claims Act case as Texas prepares for a shift in leadership. Democrat Nathan Johnson won election as the state's next attorney general after outgoing Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton lost a bid for the U.S. Senate.
Medicaid Claims Under Dispute
The litigation began in 2021 when Paxton and an unnamed plaintiff sued to compel Planned Parenthood to return Medicaid funds received from Texas and Louisiana after both states moved to cut off funding. The complaint alleges that Planned Parenthood broke the federal False Claims Act by collecting Medicaid reimbursements while termination orders were underway and failing to refund payments once those terminations took effect.
Planned Parenthood claimed that billing the states remained lawful because court orders had stayed the termination decisions at the time. The organization also maintained that its national entity cannot be held liable for providing legal counsel to regional affiliates. Planned Parenthood has stated that an adverse judgment would force it to cease all operations throughout Texas.
The case resumed after the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found in an August unanimous decision that the provider had acted prematurely in challenging a 2023 order that denied national group immunity. That appellate decision cleared the litigation to proceed following a pause of nearly three years.
