"Wolves in White Coats" from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) exposes more than 225 hospitals and health systems in the U.S. that preyed on vulnerable children and told families that their kids needed life-altering medical treatments for misdiagnosed gender disorders.
"These are sex-rejecting, mutilating transgender procedures promoted by the Biden administration," HHS Assistant Secretary Brian Christine, MD, stated in an official administration video message (pictured in AP photo right) released online announcing the report. "Thanks to President (Donald) Trump's leadership, we're changing course."
According to the report, more than 5,700 minors underwent mutilative surgeries, and more than 8,500 received hormones or puberty blockers.
Christine said the clinics subjected those children "to profound interventions while serious questions remained about evidence, about informed consent, and about financial incentives."
Vice President JD Vance added these hospitals and clinics defrauded families, insurance companies and the taxpayers out of millions of dollars.
"So many of these people got rich not by doing what was good for the patient, but by actually mutilating these kids," he said. "It was disgraceful."
Talking about this on "Washington Watch," Dr. Quentin Van Meter, a pediatric endocrinologist and a former president of the American College of Pediatricians, noted that the report was accompanied by a video produced to examine the histories of at least nine individuals who made the futile attempt to change genders.
"The whole thrust of this is that in order to be able to get insurance coverage for the family to not bear the cost, or for the healthcare system to bear the cost, was to not use codes that had to do with transgender … and instead to use generic endocrine disorder, non-specific, as a code for hiding behind and then getting paid for, and also justifying the cost of medications through pharmacies and then also for surgical procedures," Dr. Van Meter explained.
He said the cost of the medications alone can be upwards of $20,000 a year for the total package of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Medical visits and the morbidities that happen, where organ systems begin to fail, sterility happens and genital structures begin to atrophy, come at additional costs.
He called it "very definite deceit on purpose," noting that it is nothing new, as every year includes massive Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
"It was pretty obvious that there was fraud going on, and this finally uncovered it," Van Meter said of the report.
He believes political ideology is driving this more than anything else; the secondary benefits are the financial ones.
"It's an ideology that is so harmful in so many ways, and it's been passed on as quality medical care and actually standard of care," Van Meter lamented. "The political ideology is so deeply rooted in things that are so anti-American in so many ways, and the children have been the victims."
But like Christine said, the Trump administration is working to correct it.
For example, the Federal Trade Commission and four states have sued the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) alleging that the global group made deceptive claims and provided the means for medical providers to mislead parents about the safety and necessity of pediatric gender-transition services
Van Meter pointed out that WPATH guidelines have been the bedrock of the entire gender industry, but this case has shed light on the fact "that there never really were standards of care, and there was no scientific basis for what they recommended."
He believes the international standard of gender critical care, which includes compassionate healthcare, mental health evaluations and ongoing treatments for kids, is the way to help children who say they are confused about their gender.
The hospitals and clinics listed in the HHS report have been referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges.
"If someone broke the law, we are going to hold them accountable," Vance said in the announcement video.
"If the medical establishment failed children, we will confront that failure and restore the sacred duty to do no harm," Christine added.
