Patients face higher fees and longer waits after Planned Parenthood quits federal program - The Washington Post
Patients face higher fees and longer waits after Planned Parenthood quits federal program - The Washington Post |
| Posted: 24 Aug 2019 03:01 AM PDT  Abortion-rights supporters stand on both sides of a street near the Gateway Arch in St. Louis this spring in support of reproductive rights. (Jeff Roberson/AP) In Cleveland, a Planned Parenthood mobile clinic that tests for sexually transmitted diseases has cut its staff to part-time and may shut down. In Minneapolis, women and girls accustomed to free checkups are now billed as much as $200 per visit on a sliding fee scale. And in Vienna, W.Va., Planned Parenthood employees are marking boxes of birth control pills with "Do not use" signs because they were paid for with federal grants the organization can no longer accept. Planned Parenthood's decision to quit a $260 million federal family planning program this week, rather than comply with what it calls a "gag rule" imposed by the Trump administration on abortion referrals, is creating turmoil in many low-income communities across the United States. The organization had served 1.6 million women, or about 41 percent of the participants in the Title X program, providing reproductive health services, such as birth control, pregnancy tests and screening for sexually transmitted diseases at free or discounted prices. While some lucky patients will find the transition relatively seamless if they live in states such as Washington and Vermont that have dedicated funds to make up for the shortfall, many others will face long delays, higher costs and possible clinic closures. Planned Parenthood officials say they are doing all they can to work with individual patients so that they can continue to get care — training employees to help those eligible to sign up for Medicaid, working out financing plans, or referring patients to other low-cost clinics. They have also launched new fundraising efforts to keep the programs going. Many clinics have posted placards outside their doors that reassure women that "We're here to stay. We're here for you." Leaving the Title X program was not a decision Planned Parenthood made lightly. The country's largest U.S. abortion provider, which has been a longtime target of religious conservatives, has been fighting the rule changes in court, private meetings and through public protests for more than a year. But a decision last week from the Department of Health and Human Services requiring participants in the program to pledge to abide by the rules and provide a plan for coming into compliance by Aug. 19 forced a decision. Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the group could no longer participate in a program it believes is forcing doctors, nurses and other care providers to withhold information in a way that is unethical and dangerous to women's health. "We believe that the Trump administration is doing this as an attack on reproductive health care and to keep providers like Planned Parenthood from serving our patients," Johnson said. In recent weeks, several states that distribute Title X funds, including Delaware, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Virginia, have said they will remain in the program, while New York, Oregon, Washington, Illinois and Hawaii have said they would not. In Vermont, a Planned Parenthood clinic that is the state's only federal family planning provider was saved from a reduction in services at the last minute when the state said on Monday that it would pay $759,999 to keep the clinic fully operating.  A sign on the door of Planned Parenthood of Utah on Wednesday. (Rick Bowmer/AP) There have been no such reprieves for clinics in West Virginia, Minnesota and Ohio. On Wednesday, Jessica DeLong walked into the Planned Parenthood in Minneapolis for birth control and was told she'd have to pay $200 instead of her usual $30 sliding scale fee. She didn't have it, and told the clinic she'd come back next week after she got paid. "I just feel like they've targeted Planned Parenthood," she said. Kaitlyn Vaske-Wright, a nurse practitioner at the Minneapolis clinic, said other patients had already left or canceled appointments because they could not afford to pay more. In addition, she said, some patients are limiting their care for monetary reasons. "They come in with a specific problem they need addressed, and I might recommend testing A, B, C and D, and due to cost, they might only choose to do A or B, which in my professional opinion would not be the best plan of care," she said. "Patients are confused and frustrated," Vaske-Wright added. Another patient, who spoke on the condition that she be identified by only her first name, Rasheeda, said she felt worried as she entered the clinic for her appointment. She receives birth control, medical care and counseling at Planned Parenthood. "I just feel like it's going to be very hard for women," Rasheeda said. "If you don't make that much income, how are you going to be able to support the needs and the health from here?" There was similar anxiety among patients in Cleveland. A Planned Parenthood mobile clinic RV was parked at a public housing complex on Thursday when two young women walked up. Destiny Woodson, an 18-year-old high school student who works part-time at Dunkin', asked for some condoms. When Woodson found out the HealthMobile might end its run because of the funding loss — its coordinator had already been made part-time last week — she was indignant. "That's not right, that's not right at all," she said. Woodson's friend, Ashanti Zeigler, 20, shifted her 1-year-old son Josiah in her arms as she lamented the lost funding. "I don't like it," Zeigler said. "Why take away something from people who can't afford it? And why should Trump be able to tell women what we can do with our bodies?" Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, which received $4 million in the last Title X grant cycle and serves 60,000 patients, said it is looking at closing its HealthMobile program, which it has run with Cleveland's Health Department for nine years. The 20-year-old RV goes out into the city's poorest neighborhoods, parking near recreation centers, schools, and laundromats. Outside, a sandwich-board sign announces: "Free Health Services Available. Pregnancy Testing, STD Testing. HIV Testing. Condoms." At the Planned Parenthood in Vienna, W.Va., employees boxed up various supplies, including birth control shots that had been purchased with Title X funds to be given to clients at no or low cost. In some cases, the clinic has had to write prescriptions that are now filled elsewhere, often at a significant cost to patients. Those able to wait have been rescheduled while the clinic tries to find other ways to get the supplies. "That actually posed a big problem for us," said health center manager Elizabeth Boothe. Madeline Gray, 25, was at the Vienna Planned Parenthood on Monday afternoon, shortly after the agency announced it was leaving the family planning program. Gray, who is uninsured, has relied on Planned Parenthood since she was a teenager for annual exams, testing, and birth control. She had come in to get a vaginal ring used for birth control replaced, as she has done every month. "I signed in, and they said, 'We don't have it. We just lost our Title X funding,' " she said. "And I knew that, but I thought that was going to be a slower process. I am putting my savings into an IUD instead." She said she is has mixed feelings about Planned Parenthood's decision. "I do support it because they would still be denying women care if they were to change their rules … I just hate that because of that, so many women are going to lose out on health care," she said. "It's a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation." Regan reported from Minneapolis. Joanna Connors in Cleveland and Meryl Williams in Williamstown, W.Va., contributed to this report.  |
| Planned Parenthood warns of more unintended pregnancies, STDs after leaving federal program - 10TV Posted: 22 Aug 2019 12:00 AM PDT  SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Planned Parenthood clinics in several states are charging new fees, tapping financial reserves, intensifying fundraising and warning of more unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases after its decision to quit a $260 million federal family planning program in an abortion dispute with the Trump administration. The fallout is especially intense in Utah, where Planned Parenthood has been the only provider participating in the nearly 50-year-old Title X family planning program and will now lose about $2 million yearly in federal funds that helped 39,000 mostly low-income, uninsured people. It plans to maintain its services — which include contraception, STD testing and cancer screening — but is considering charging a small copay for patients who used to get care for free. Planned Parenthood in Minnesota is in a similar situation, serving about 90% of the state's Title X patients, and plans to start charging fees due to the loss of $2.6 million in annual funding. Advertisement - Story continues below The organization is concerned about the spread of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. "We believe there will be a public health crisis created by this denial of care," said Sarah Stoesz, the Minnesota-based president of Planned Parenthood North Central States. "It's a very sad day for the country." Planned Parenthood and several other providers withdrew from the program earlier this week rather than comply with a newly implemented rule prohibiting participating clinics from referring women for abortions. Anti-abortion activists who form a key part of President Donald Trump's base have been campaigning to "defund Planned Parenthood." Among its varied services it is a major abortion provider, and the activists viewed the grants as an indirect subsidy. About 4 million women are served nationwide by the Title X program, which makes up a much bigger portion of Planned Parenthood's patients than abortion. But the organization said it could not abide by the abortion-referral rules because it says they would make it impossible for doctors to do their jobs. Misty Dotson, a single mother in Utah, started going to Planned Parenthood as doctors' bills for treating recurring yeast infections mounted. The services became even more important when she gave up her employer-sponsored health insurance because she couldn't afford the $500 monthly bill. She is unsure what she'd do if the family planning services she gets stop. "It would put me in a very dangerous position," said Dotson, who works as an executive assistant for an accounting and consulting firm. "It covers so many things: STD testing, emergency contraception, birth control, lifesaving cancer screenings ... you name it, they have treated me for it." Planned Parenthood said it's dedicated to maintaining its current services in Utah, but CEO Karrie Galloway acknowledged it won't be easy and could cause some "pain on all sides." She said the organization plans to lean heavily on donors to make up the funding gap while staff members assess how they'll cope. Among the possibilities are instituting copays of $10-$15 per visit, shortening hours and trimming spending. She doesn't plan to lay off staff, but said she may not be able to fill jobs when people leave or retire. Minnesota is planning fees as well. "We'll continue to offer all services, and keep clinic doors open, but we'll be charging patients on a sliding scale who we didn't charge before," Stoesz said. "Vulnerable people who previously were able to access birth control and STD testing for free will no longer be able to do so." Elsewhere, the impact of Planned Parenthood's withdrawal will vary from state to state. In the Deep South there will be little impact because Planned Parenthood did not provide Title X services in most of the region's states. Governments in some Democratic-controlled states, including Hawaii, Illinois, New York and Vermont, say they will try to replace at least some of the lost federal funding. In Washington state, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee — fresh from quitting the presidential campaign — vowed to join that group of states. His administration is pulling Washington out of Title X because of the new rule and will ask the Legislature to make up for the $4 million in federal funding that will be lost. "We will not comply with their dangerous, unconstitutional, illegal rules," Inslee said Thursday. "We will make sure this health care continues." The chief operating officer for Planned Parenthood of the Greater Northwest and Hawaiian Islands, Rebecca Gibron, said Southern Idaho could be hit hard by the changes, with other health care providers in the area saying they can't fill the gap if the roughly 1,000 low-income women served by Planned Parenthood in Twin Falls are no longer able to receive care. "This was not money that can simply be made up by raising dollars from donors," Gibron said. "We have rent to pay, we have staff salaries ... there are limits to what we are able to do in terms of providing free care without the Title X program." Among other providers withdrawing from Title X is Maine Family Planning, which oversees a network that serves about 23,000 patients per year and will be losing $1.8 million in annual funding. Its CEO, George Hill, said the organization will rely on reserves and intensify fundraising efforts to bridge the gap while seeking more aid from the state. In anticipation of the changes, Democrats in neighboring New Hampshire added about $3.2 million in the state budget they passed earlier this year to make up for the federal funding. But that's on hold after Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed the budget in June for other reasons. Planned Parenthood will continue to participate in Medicaid, the federal health-coverage program for low-income Americans. That's Planned Parenthood's biggest source of government funding — about $400 million or more annually in recent years. The Republican-controlled legislatures in Texas, Iowa and Missouri have taken steps to block that flow of funds in their states. Maryann Martindale, executive director of the Utah Academy of Family Physicians, said most Title X clients earn slightly too much money to qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford employer-based or private health insurance.  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from "free std testing" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
Comments
Post a Comment