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Kansas has “reconsidered” its decision to terminate the participation of 11 Planned Parenthood physicians and other medical providers in the state’s Medicaid program, although it’s still trying to cut off Planned Parenthood itself. In a letter Monday to the federal judge overseeing a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood and the providers to block their termination, a lawyer for the state said the decision to prohibit the medical providers from receiving Medicaid reimbursement “was made primarily to prevent PPKM (Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri) and PPSLR (Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region) from evading the effect of their terminations by having providers at their facilities use their individual (Medicaid) numbers.” But after court briefings and arguments, the letter said, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment “decided to rescind the terminations of the providers.” (Margolies, 6/14)

Kansas is abandoning plans to block 11 people who have provided services to Planned Parenthood from participation in its Medicaid program, though the state still intends to cut those funds from the organization's regional affiliates. A lawyer for the state's health department announced the move in a letter filed Monday with a Kansas City, Kansas, federal judge weighing two Planned Parenthood affiliates' request to scuttle any halting of Medicaid reimbursements. That funding cutoff could come as early as July 7, by which time U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson is expected to rule on the preliminary injunction sought by Planned Parenthoods for Kansas and Mid-Missouri as well as another for the St. Louis region. (Suhr, 6/14)