Kansas Won't Cut Medicaid Funding....Yet

Kansas City – Today, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) requested a third extension from the court in order to defend its unlawful termination of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri (PPKM) from the Kansas Medicaid program, stating that the effective date of the terminations would now be July 7, 2016. This request came after private attorneys who were initially hired to represent KDHE in the lawsuit filed by PPKM to stop the terminations, unexpectedly announced yesterday that they were withdrawing their representation of KDHE in this matter. This move forced the state to make an eleventh hour plea to the federal court to push back the State’s deadline to respond to PPKM’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would halt the State’s termination decisions while the case moves forward.

“We continue to assert that Governor Brownback’s termination of PPKM from Kansas Medicaid is wholly without cause and unlawful. While the state wastes taxpayer time and money scrambling to put together a flimsy plan of action, Planned Parenthood will continue to serve Medicaid patients as we have done everyday for the past 40 years and which we will continue well into the future,” Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri President and CEO, Laura McQuade said.

PPKM’s health centers in Wichita, Overland Park and the KC metro area continue to serve Medicaid patients who need comprehensive reproductive health care including annual exams, cancer screenings, birth control counseling and dispensing, STI testing and treatment.