News from the CEO

My plans to retire have been placed on hold. A little over a year ago I asked the board to begin a transition process to new leadership for our Planned Parenthood. The Board undertook a very careful evaluation of the agency, identified the key strengths for a new executive, sought and attained qualified persons for the position and settled on two candidates. The prime candidate and the Board could not arrive at what the board felt was an equitable wage and benefit agreement. In the meantime, the second candidate committed to another organization.

Concurrent with the CEO search, a major change evolved in Michigan with the funding streams for family planning. The state implemented what state officials believed to be a way to substantially increase access to family planning for women and families with marginal incomes. The state received a "waiver" from the Federal Medicaid program that increased the family maximum eligibility threshold income from150% to 185% of the poverty rate. Titled "PlanFirst!", the program targets women and families who are at high risk of unintended pregnancy. State officials were expecting the new program to replace existing state and federal family planning grant funds. In addition, state and federal officials decided to focus the major portion of state and federal funds on the Detroit area where there is the greatest number of unintended pregnancies in the state.

All of these policy shifts resulted in less state grant funds for our Planned Parenthood. State officials expected our agency to make up this decrease by serving more women eligible for the PlanFirst! Program. But the PlanFirst! Program ran head-on into federal regulations and state official’s interpretations of regulations that severely limited the number of women and families eligible for the program.

These changes in the funding created considerable financial instability for the agency just as negotiations broke down with the CEO candidate. It was the Board’s assessment that this was not the time to make a change in staff leadership and to postpone the search. I concurred with the decision and agreed to remain in place as CEO for an extended time until we return to a stable financial condition and the Board determines the steps for leadership transition.