A Colorado hospital has been referred for a federal investigation over its “failure” to comply with standards on transgender medical procedures for children, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday.
HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart said that he had referred the Children’s Hospital Colorado to the department’s inspector general over its response to Trump administration guidance on transgender procedures for minors. The hospital has been engaged in a separate legal dispute with the Justice Department over data requested by the Trump administration related to its administration of such procedures.
Stuart said he referred the hospital for “failure to meet recognized standards of health care” set forth by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a “declaration that sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective.”
HHS “will always take every possible action to ensure children all across the nation are safe and protected,” Stuart added.
The referral comes as the hospital seeks to quash a subpoena issued by the Justice Department in July demanding records concerning gender-related treatments, including insurance claims, billing records, internal guidance, any documents on alternative billing codes for gender dysphoria, and information on kids who were prescribed puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. The subpoena was sent to more than 20 doctors and hospitals that performed transgender medical procedures on children.
The Justice Department is investigating “whether the promotion, marketing, labeling, sale, and distribution of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria and related disorders could violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act,” according to court documents.
The hospital has so far refused to produce documents, stating that it will not release private medical information.
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Earlier this month, HHS posted rules that will bar hospitals that offer transgender procedures to minors from participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs. The rules will also prohibit federal funding of Medicaid’s Children’s Health Insurance Program from going toward transgender medical procedures on those under 19 years of age.
“Sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors, and therefore, fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care,” Kennedy wrote in a public health declaration.
Colorado is one of more than a dozen Democrat-led states suing to block HHS actions to cut off funding for hospitals that perform transgender medical procedures on kids. The suit alleges that HHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Medicare and Medicaid statutes by moving to cut hospital funding.
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