Trump administration probes hospitals on transgender treatments for minors, HHS compliance

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 29, 2025 / 16:59 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump’s administration launched an inquiry into hospitals that have provided transgender drugs and performed transgender surgeries on minors, seeking information on the processes and outcomes — particularly “adverse events” — that result from the controversial medical interventions.

Mehmet Oz, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), sent a letter this week to the select hospitals inquiring about whether and how the hospitals have changed their protocols and procedures in response to new rules and guidelines issued by Trump and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 29 that instructed HHS to end Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements for transgender interventions on minors. On May 1, HHS issued a report detailing the lack of evidence to support such medical treatments.

CMS is giving the hospitals 30 days to respond to the letter and stated in a press release that it has “urgent concerns” related to procedures it described as “harmful.”

In the letter, Oz asked the hospitals what “changes to clinical practice guidelines and protocols” are being enacted in response to the HHS report, particularly surrounding “the adequacy of informed consent protocols for children with gender dysphoria,” such as “how children are deemed capable of making these potentially life-changing decisions.” 

The letter also asked hospitals to report “any adverse events related to these procedures,” especially regarding “children who later look to detransition.” It noted that CMS must “ensure baseline quality standards” at institutions that participate in Medicare and Medicaid.

Some of the medical interventions about which CMS is concerned include surgeries that remove sexual organs or “attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex” as well as prescriptions for cross-sex hormones and drugs that “delay the onset or progression of normally-timed puberty.”

“These are irreversible, high-risk procedures being conducted on vulnerable children, often at taxpayer expense,” Oz said in a statement. “Hospitals accepting federal funds are expected to meet rigorous quality standards and uphold the highest level of stewardship when it comes to public resources — we will not turn a blind eye to procedures that lack a solid foundation of evidence and may result in lifelong harm.”

CMS further requested information on financial data related to such interventions, including bills for transgender drugs and surgeries for minors that were funded with federal tax money and documents showing the revenue generated from the procedures and their profit margins.

Mary Rice Hasson, the director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told CNA that CMS is essentially trying to find out: “What medical interventions have you performed on confused kids, how much money are you making from it, and how are those kids faring?” 

Hasson said “the gender industry” has falsely claimed to follow “evidence-based medicine” when providing these interventions and have “minimized concerns that these hormones and surgeries result in impaired fertility and sterility, sometimes before these kids are old enough to purchase alcohol.”

“Numerous substantive evidence reviews, plus the recent HHS umbrella evidence review, have found the opposite — that there’s very little evidence of benefit, most evidence is poor quality, and children are suffering permanent harm, including infertility/sterilization, cardiovascular risks, weakened bones, and likely changes to the brain,” she said.

Hasson expressed skepticism that many of the hospitals will be able to fully comply, stating that they have “done a terrible job following up on how kids are faring” and that the informed consent protocols “exaggerate the supposed benefits and minimize the harm.” She also contended that the hospitals likely “do not want to reveal how much money they are making, because it exposes their mercenary motives.”

“These hospitals are likely to enlist cadres of expensive lawyers to help them avoid being held accountable, but I don’t think this administration will back down,” Hasson added.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/264419/trump-administration-probes-hospitals-on-transgender-treatments-for-minors-hhs-rule-compliance