Davidson health department
will take over family planning
Under prodding by the state, the Davidson County
Health Department agreed today to accept the entire
$894,000 in federal Title X funds available for family
planning services in 2011-12.
The county had accepted $535,000 in 2010-11, and
put in $547,000 in local funds, to serve a minimum of
4,400 patients. Planned Parenthood has handled the
remainder of the services under contract.
Planned Parenthood also has a contract in Shelby
County. The two contracts total about $1.1 million.
Trying to exclude Planned Parenthood because it separately
operates abortion clinics, the legislature two
years ago passed a law giving county health departments
the first opportunity to use the funds and requiring the
state health department to encourage them to do so.
The Title X family planning program is handled solely by
local health departments in 93 of the 95 counties.
Last month, lawmakers thought they passed a measure
to bar Planned Parenthood, or any other private
organization, from receiving the funds. It turned out
they didn’t. So Tennessee Right to Life and others have
urged Gov. Bill Haslam to do something.
Last Friday, the state health department sent new letters
to the Shelby and Davidson departments encouraging
them again to take “every step possible” to handle
the full program.
Unlike the letters sent last spring, these did not specify a minimum
number of “unduplicated
patients” that must be served but instead referred
simply to serving “citizens” in the two counties.
The local departments were given until today to
answer. Davidson County’s affirmative response was
conditioned on the absence of a specific patient number.
In Shelby County, which had not responded by
today’s Tennessee Journal press deadline, the problem
wasn’t solely about money. In April, the Shelby department
told the state it would consider accepting a larger
contract if the state could provide funds to “support the
full cost of operating the program,” but even then it
would need six to 12 months to “develop the infrastructure,
staff, and systems necessary to double the family
planning patient caseload.”
Planned Parenthood officials have said a loss of funding
would be a blow to its services in both counties.
