Planned Parenthood of Northern New England urges modest state investments to shore up family planning services

Jessica Barquist, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, told a Vermont budget committee on Feb. 19 that the affiliate faces “a funding gap of more than $8,600,000 over the next 3 years” and asked the state for targeted, modest steps to keep health centers open.

Barquist said Planned Parenthood of Northern New England served nearly 16,000 patients and provided more than 23,000 visits across seven centers and telehealth last year; 54 percent of patients are low income. “Last year, we provided $1,300,000 in free and low-cost care, which is a significant increase from $802,000 the year before,” she said.

The request to the committee centered on three items: a state-funded increase to Medicaid reimbursement for core family-planning codes, development of a state family-planning program to replace or backfill Title X funding if federal rules change, and support for H.214, a proposed safe-harbor fund to cover collateral costs for patients seeking abortion care.

Barquist asked the state to invest about $85,000 to increase rates for top family-planning billing codes and said that, because family-planning services receive a 90/10 enhanced federal match, that state investment could “unlock $850,000 in additional funding for family planning patients in Vermont.” She said her calculations reflect Planned Parenthood’s billing and that the Department of Vermont Health Access (referred to in testimony as the “Diva” system) would be needed to estimate the total statewide impact because other providers bill the same codes.

On the second request, Barquist said Planned Parenthood receives $760,000 annually in federal Title X funds and asked the state to develop its own family-planning program using Title X guidelines with a state investment so access would not be subject to changing federal administrative rules.

Barquist also asked the committee to take up H.214, a bill to establish a safe-harbor fund managed by the treasurer’s office to pay collateral costs (travel, lodging, child care, lost wages) for patients seeking abortion care. She said the fund would be donor-supported at startup and carries no appropriation in the current request.

Committee members asked several technical questions about which billing codes would be affected by the requested Medicaid rate increase and whether the $85,000 figure applied only to Planned Parenthood or to all providers who bill the family-planning codes. Barquist replied that her calculations were specific to Planned Parenthood and that she would provide details on whether evaluation-and-management (E/M) office-visit codes would be treated only when tied to a family-planning diagnosis.

Barquist also described closures the affiliate experienced in 2022, saying a “similar financial crisis caused the affiliate to close centers that were unsustainable,” and urged modest, targeted investments to avoid further closures and the community harms she said those closures produced.

Committee members and Barquist agreed that staff from the treasurer’s office and from the state’s Medicaid data system would be better positioned to answer technical questions about the statewide fiscal impact and implementation details.

Barquist’s testimony and the committee’s questions focused on funding mechanics and program design; the committee did not take a formal vote during the session.