JD Vance wants hospitals investigated over trans healthcare ‘fraud’
The vice president sent a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to attorney general Todd Blanche yesterday (13 August)
By Callum Wells
JD Vance has asked the US Department of Justice to investigate hospitals over alleged fraud involving gender-affirming care for minors.
The vice president sent a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to attorney general Todd Blanche yesterday (13 August).
What does JD Vance’s letter to the DOJ allege?
It alleges that some hospitals and healthcare providers used incorrect diagnosis codes when billing insurers for treatments including puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
“Some pediatric gender clinics and children’s hospitals have apparently used misleading or even fraudulent diagnostic and billing codes to ensure that insurance companies will cover the procedures,” Vance wrote in the letter.
The HHS report is titled Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine’. It looks at insurance claims for gender-affirming care and alleges that providers used diagnoses for endocrine disorders and precocious puberty when billing for some treatments. Precocious puberty is when a child begins puberty earlier than usual.
How much was allegedly billed for puberty blockers?
HHS analysed insurance claims dating from 2015 to 2025. It says almost $50 million (£37m) was billed for puberty blockers for patients aged between nine and 17 who had been given an endocrine disorder diagnosis.
The report also identifies more than 30 hospitals, clinics and pharmacies that it says billed for puberty blockers using a non-specific hormone disorder diagnosis.
Across all of the gender-related care examined in its analysis, HHS says almost $120 million (£88m) was billed since 2019. Mount Sinai Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital were among the providers identified as having the highest levels of billing, according to Reuters. Boston Children’s said it was reviewing the findings.
The report does not establish that the providers identified committed fraud. Vance has referred the findings to the Justice Department so it can determine whether they “violated federal law, regulations, or policies”.
What has Trump changed about Medicaid funding for trans youth?
Earlier this week, the Trump administration barred federal Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding from being used for gender-affirming care for transgender young people. The rule is due to take effect on 13 October.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Medical Association have opposed the restrictions.