Overnight Healthcare: Some Dems defend Planned Parenthood

DEMS DEFEND PLANNED PARENTHOOD Several House Democrats are coming to the defense of Planned Parenthood in the wake of a now-viral video that shows its chief medical director graphically detailing the uses for organs of aborted fetuses.

House Republican leaders on Wednesday called for hearings into the issue. 

“Planned Parenthood is actually allowed, is my understanding, for scientific research, to use fetal tissue and that is not illegal,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus and sponsor of numerous abortion-rights bills.

{mosads}”Having talked to the leadership at Planned Parenthood, this was a sting operation,” she added.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), another prominent supporter of abortion rights, also dismissed the latest attacks against Planned Parenthood.   

“They’ve been attacking Planned Parenthood for years,” she said. “They’ve been calling for investigations for years, and they surface videos and they come on the attack … and I think it’s outrageous.”

Lee also said she has not seen the video. Read more here. 

FAKE OBAMACARE ENROLLEES:  Eleven fictitious people created as part of an undercover watchdog effort were able to automatically re-enroll in ObamaCare coverage, a new report finds. 

The report, from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, follows up on a GAO report last year. That report found that 11 of 12 fictitious people, with fake documents, were able to successfully enroll in ObamaCare coverage through the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace. 

The follow-up report, released by congressional Republicans on Wednesday, finds that those 11 fictitious people were able to maintain their coverage through the end of 2014 and then were automatically re-enrolled for 2015. Some were re-enrolled even though no additional documentation was provided.   

The marketplace later terminated coverage for six of the 11 people. But the GAO was able to reinstate five of the six fictitious applicants by calling the marketplace. 

“The CMS document-verification process is not designed to identify fraudulent applications,” the GAO report states, referring to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The GAO found the contractor that handles ObamaCare applications is not required to look for fraud, only to inspect to make sure documents have not obviously been altered.

CMS officials told the agency that there has been “no indication of a meaningful level of fraud”; however, the GAO points out that there could be fraud that officials do not know about because the system is not equipped to detect it. Read more here. 

FROM OBAMACARE TO INSURANCE LOBBYING A former administration official who oversaw the rollout of ObamaCare will be taking over as top lobbyist for a major insurance industry trade group.

Marilynn Tavenner was unanimously confirmed Wednesday as president and chief executive of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).

Tavenner will take over the job weeks after AHIP lost longtime advocate Karen Ignagni, who spent 22 years there. Ignagni had been a major player during the crafting and the rollout of ObamaCare.

AHIP picked Tavenner two months after Ignagni announced she was leaving.

“I am honored to join this association and to lead this industry that is deeply committed to improving care delivery and affordability for individuals and families,” Tavenner said. Read more here. 

Thursday’s schedule 

The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing into fraud and HealthCare.gov

State by state 

Supreme Court ruling may pave way for Alaska to act on Medicaid expansion

GOP govs test ObamaCare compromise: Make Medicaid recipients pay 

What we’re reading

Poll shows most say ObamaCare issue settled 

Obamacare’s ‘Cadillac Tax’ is an important part of the plan so don’t mess with it

What you might have missed from The Hill

House passes breast cancer research bill that excludes Komen

House GOP leaders order investigation into Planned Parenthood video

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