Vice President JD Vance urged federal prosecutors to examine possible fraud involving pediatric gender-related medical treatment after an HHS report identified millions of dollars in insurance claims that the agency said may have been billed under misleading diagnostic codes.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Vice President JD Vance is calling for a federal criminal review of billing practices tied to gender-related medical treatment for minors after a new Department of Health and Human Services report identified tens of millions of dollars in insurance claims that officials said warrant further investigation.
Vance responded Thursday on X to an HHS report examining pediatric gender programs, insurance coding and the financial incentives surrounding treatment.
The report, titled “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine,'” reviewed insurance claims filed between 2015 and 2025 and raised questions about whether certain gender-related treatments were billed under diagnostic categories that did not accurately describe the underlying care.
“It turns out that convincing vulnerable children to reject their gender can create patients for life, earning hospitals tens of thousands of dollars in additional revenue per child,” Vance said.
According to HHS, more than 225 hospitals and health systems across the country have established pediatric gender programs.
The agency’s review identified approximately $50 million in claims involving puberty-blocking drugs that were billed using a diagnostic code for an unspecified endocrine disorder.
HHS also found nearly $11 million in claims involving patients between the ages of 13 and 17 that were submitted under a code for precocious puberty.
The department said those billing patterns do not by themselves establish criminal wrongdoing but warrant additional scrutiny to determine whether providers improperly coded treatment to obtain insurance reimbursement.
Vance accused some hospitals and medical providers of potentially defrauding Medicaid and private insurers “by using misleading or fraudulent billing codes to get insurance to cover the costs.”
He said the report’s findings had been referred to Attorney General Todd Blanche for possible criminal investigation.
“When providers miscode treatment in order to secure insurance coverage for gender-transitioning interventions that insurance would not otherwise cover, they should be held accountable,” Vance said.
“If they have done so intentionally, thereby perpetrating a fraud on Medicaid or on private insurers, they should go to prison.”
HHS separately said it had referred the findings to the department’s Office of Inspector General to determine whether any federal laws were violated.
The report is part of a broader Trump administration examination of gender-related medical treatment for minors and the role of hospitals, insurers and federal health programs in paying for such care.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the department’s review was intended to determine whether medical and financial considerations were being subordinated to other priorities.
“Doctors and hospitals must put children’s health ahead of ideology and financial gain,” Kennedy said in a statement accompanying the report.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz also said federal officials have a responsibility to investigate situations in which billing codes may conceal the actual nature of treatment being provided.
The agency has “an obligation to follow the facts” when billing practices obscure the care actually provided to patients, Oz said.
The report’s findings center heavily on insurance coding.
Medical billing depends on diagnostic and procedure codes that tell insurers why a patient received treatment and what services were provided. HHS is questioning whether some providers used codes for endocrine disorders or precocious puberty when the drugs were actually prescribed as part of gender-related treatment.
If coding was intentionally altered to secure reimbursement that otherwise would have been denied, federal officials say such conduct could potentially raise fraud concerns.
The report, however, does not establish that every claim identified by HHS was fraudulent, and the agency said further investigation is necessary.
Vance encouraged the public, particularly parents, to read the report and argued that the financial structure surrounding long-term treatment deserves greater scrutiny.
He characterized some pediatric gender-related interventions as “horrific, experimental treatments” and said the federal findings suggest financial incentives may have influenced their expansion.
Those conclusions are disputed by major medical organizations.
Groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics have previously defended gender-related medical care for minors as evidence-based and have challenged earlier government assessments criticizing such treatment.
The disagreement reflects a broader national debate over the medical evidence, ethics and appropriate regulatory standards governing treatment for minors experiencing gender dysphoria.
The HHS report adds a separate financial and legal dimension by focusing on whether hospitals and providers accurately represented treatments when seeking reimbursement from Medicaid and private insurers.
Representatives for hospital systems associated with pediatric gender programs did not immediately respond Thursday to requests for comment.
For now, the findings remain allegations and investigative referrals rather than determinations of criminal liability.
HHS has asked its inspector general to review whether federal law was violated, while Vance has sought involvement from the Justice Department.
The next stage will depend on whether investigators conclude that the disputed billing practices reflected permissible medical coding decisions, administrative errors or intentional efforts to obtain coverage through false or misleading claims.
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