Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has expanded a 2024 lawsuit based on new evidence that accuses two doctors of lying to healthcare providers about prescribing transgender procedures on kids in defiance of state law.
Paxton announced additional allegations on Wednesday against two doctors, May Lau and M. Brett Cooper, over alleged healthcare fraud related to their prescription of transgender drugs to minors. Both Lau and Cooper had prescribed transgender drugs to dozens of kids in violation of state law, Paxton said.
“What these radicals were doing was evil, and I will pursue every available legal tool to stop and punish this cruel child abuse,” Paxton said. “Any fraudulent scheme to steal hardworking Texans’ taxpayer dollars will be stopped and repaid in full. Under my watch, the transgender activists using their positions in the medical field to illegally ‘transition’ children will face the full force of the law.”
Paxton previously filed lawsuits against the doctors for allegedly prescribing the drugs. Last Friday, he added two Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act claims to the suits. His office described the suits as “first-of-their kind” medical fraud suits against doctors who performed transgender procedures on minors.
Paxton wants the doctors to repay the state three times what they billed for the procedures and to impose additional civil penalties.
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In the most recent filing against Cooper, Paxton said the Dallas-based doctor “engaged in false, misleading, and deceptive acts and practices to mislead pharmacies, insurance providers, and/or patients by falsifying medical records, prescriptions, and billing records to conceal that his treatments and prescriptions were for the purposes of transitioning a child’s biological sex or affirming a child’s belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex.”
Cooper previously lamented the passage of legislation in Texas banning transgender procedures on kids, calling it a “sad day for Texans” and a decision driven by “political ideology.”
According to the filing, Cooper prescribed testosterone to teenage girls as young as 14-years-old. He then billed healthcare providers “something other than the purpose of transitioning their biological sex or affirming their belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex,” the suit alleges.
Lau is also accused of prescribing testosterone to teenage girls in defiance of state law. In October, Lau surrendered her medical license amid the ongoing legal action.
“Lau is a scofflaw who is putting the health and safety of minors at risk by prescribing testosterone, a controlled substance, to biological female minors and estrogen to a biological male minor for the purposes of transitioning their biological sex or affirming their belief that their gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex,” the suit said.
The doctors allegedly billed Texas Medicaid for the drugs by falsifying records, altering diagnosis codes, and submitting deceptive billing information.
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