Mistake costs Planned Parenthood $5.05M

As a result, patients will have to pay for previously free services.

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By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer Updated 9:44 AM Thursday, July 28, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — Planned Parenthood patients may have to pay for services that were previously free after the agency serving the region failed to get $5.05 million in federal and state grants for reproductive health and wellness services.

Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, which serves Clark, Butler, Clermont and Montgomery counties, didn’t receive the funds after submitting an incomplete grant application and scoring too low for funding, said a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, which administers the grant program.

More details about the incomplete application weren’t immediately available Wednesday.

“That is hard to believe,” said Laurie Housemeyer, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood, upon being told Wednesday why Planned Parenthood lost the funding, which it has received for at least 25 years. “We have a very thorough and qualified grant writer,” Housemeyer said.

The recent departure of Planned Parenthood’s president and CEO, Becki Brenner, predated news of the loss of grant funding, and the two events are not related, Housemeyer said. The agency has not named a new president and CEO.

The loss — $1 million annually in the next five years — amounts to 12 percent of the organization’s budget, said Housemeyer.

Planned Parenthood hopes to make up the funding shortfall through private fundraising, Housemeyer said. The agency, which has 90 employees, does not plan layoffs.

The impact of the funding loss will be primarily felt by those people living at or below the poverty level.

In 2010, Planned Parenthood health centers in Montgomery, Clark, Butler and Clermont counties were visited by 13,732 people, including more than 6,000 who were living at or below the poverty line and therefore qualified for free services.

For example, a woman who previously received a free annual exam that included a pap smear — a screening test for cervical cancer — would now have to pay $90. Free testing for chlamydia now will cost $17. A pack of birth control pills now costs $10 per monthly supply.

In addition to the loss in funding, Springfield’s Planned Parenthood health center can expect larger patient volumes starting in August.

Planned Parenthood’s Fairborn office will no longer serve patients at its health center at 530 E. Dayton-Yellow Springs Road after Aug. 11.

Patient records will be transferred to the Springfield office unless patients indicate a preference that their records be sent to the organization’s Dayton office.

In 2010, the Fairborn health center saw 1,417 patients and logged 2,657 visits. That same year, the Springfield health center saw 1,843 patients and logged 3,627 visits.

Housemeyer said the local health center will expand its office hours in August to accommodate the additional patients.

The closing of the Fairborn office is not related to a loss in federal funding, Housemeyer said.

Planned Parenthood has outgrown its space in Fairborn, and patients had difficulty finding the health center due to its lack of visibility, she said.

Planned Parenthood hopes to open a new location, possibly in Xenia or Wilmington, Housemeyer said.

No other Planned Parenthood location is under consideration for closing, she said.

Planned Parenthood will still have nine locations in southwest Ohio.

Staff writer Tiffany Y. Latta contributed to this report.

Mistake continued on A3

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