More Mass. clinics caught in Trump administration effort to defund Planned Parenthood

The Trump administration's effort to defund Planned Parenthood will also cut Medicaid payments to a network of clinics that serve low-income patients in southeastern Mass.

Health Imperatives, a nonprofit provider of reproductive health care and a wide variety of other services, learned this week that it is also affected. The organization operates seven clinics that serve about 10,000 patients.

Health Imperatives CEO Julia Kehoe said the funding cuts are the result of a new federal law that does not allow certain clinics to offer abortions while receiving federal funding.

“This is punishing organizations that provide abortion by not allowing us to bill for all the other health services we provide," said Kehoe.

While abortion care and family planning represent less than half of all care at Health Imperatives, federal Medicaid officials said, in a court filing that the organization meets another threshold that now disqualifies it from Medicaid payments: It’s an abortion provider that receives more than $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements a year. The criteria was established in a voluminous Republican tax and spending bill, signed into law by President Trump last month.

Health Imperatives is one of only three nationwide providers affected by the effort to curb access to abortions. The others are Planned Parenthood and Maine Family Planning.

Both Planned Parenthood and the group in Maine have sued the Trump administration to have their Medicaid funding restored. A federal judge has ordered the government to resume Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood while its case continues.

About 70% of Health Imperatives’ patients are on Medicaid or uninsured — roughly 7,000 people, according to the nonprofit. Kehoe said she expects to lose $1.8 mil through September 2026, when the law that includes this provision expires. Kehoe said Health Imperatives will continue providing medication abortions, and make adjustments to operate without Medicaid funding.

“That might mean we would have fewer clinics or fewer [patient] sessions,” she said. “It would not mean that we wouldn’t continue to provide free and low cost health care for the people we serve.”

Health imperatives is considering legal action and talking to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey's administration about state funding to supplement the Medicaid gap.

In late July, Healey joined House and Senate leaders in setting aside $2 million to offset Medicaid losses Planned Parenthood might face. It’s unclear whether state lawmakers will seek state funds to help Health Imperatives cover Medicaid patients.

Health Imperatives provides other services including addiction treatment, sexual assault counseling, nutrition programs and transgender care. It also offers health exams, cancer screening and shelter for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking.

“We serve communities with some of the highest poverty rates in the state and the highest wealth gaps in the state,” said Kehoe. “So the need for free or low cost health care is absolutely essential.”