Vice President JD Vance is taking on two administration priorities in one go: cracking down on health care fraud and restricting transgender care.
Vance sent the Justice Department a report issued Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services accusing hospitals of incorrectly billing insurers for transgender health care procedures — such as prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy to minors — in order to make a profit.
The report, “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine,’” comes two days after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cut off Medicaid funding to hospitals that offer gender-affirming care for minors.
It was also released alongside a short documentary produced by HHS featuring testimonials from young people who said they regretted the gender-affirming care they received — an effort to bolster the Trump administration’s argument that certain adults are preying on children who don’t yet know enough to offer their full consent for certain treatments.
Several leading provider groups, such as the nation’s largest doctor group, the American Medical Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics support gender-affirming care and charge that CMS’ actions are baseless and could pose major harm to patients.
