Two more hospitals strike DOJ deals to end gender-affirming care for minors

Major hospital systems in New York and Pennsylvania have struck deals with the Justice Department that carry steep financial penalties and keep gender-affirming services closed to minors.

NYU Langone Health will pay the department $8.5 million, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will pay $950,000, the department announced Friday. The deals come after providers in New York, Texas, Ohio and Connecticut adopted similar agreements.

President Donald Trump has moved to ban gender-affirming care for minors since his second term began. Last December, the Trump administration threatened to revoke federal funding from hospitals that provide the services to minors. Federal officials have also sought unprecedented access to medical records from the programs.

Related: Trans kids’ medical records remain private after Trump DOJ loses again

The press release did not specify how proceeds from the deals would be used. In previous deals, the department announced plans to partially use funds from the hospitals to cover so-called detransition services for youth patients.

Neither hospital returned requests for comment from The Advocate, but both had been under investigation by the Justice Department over their gender-affirming care programs.

In its press release, the department has alleged youth gender-affirming care providers may be violating the law through “fraudulent billing practices” used to “obtain payment from federal health care programs and private insurers.”

Neither hospital admitted to these claims by taking the deal. In a Friday press release, NYU Langone said it took the deal to circumvent the department’s subpoena for sensitive records about doctors and patients involved in the hospital’s trans youth health program.

“We believe this resolution is in the best interests of our patients and their families, protecting them as well as our providers and the institution from prolonged litigation,” said Steve Ritea, spokesperson for NYU Langone, according to the New York-based news website Gothamist.

Related: Trump DOJ criminal subpoena seeks identities of trans youth patients at NYU Langone

UPMC has similarly claimed it took the deal to shield patients and providers from the scrutiny of the Trump administration’s investigation, according to Pittsburgh radio station WESA.

The deals do not mark an immediate shift for patients, since both hospitals had already cut off minors from their gender-affirming care programs amid the Trump administration’s investigation. Plus, major medical interventions like surgeries, which have been a focus of the Justice Department’s investigations, are already almost never performed on minors.

Still, trans youth in the New York City and Pittsburgh areas will be left with fewer resources for gender-affirming care, which medical providers widely view as safe and beneficial for mental health. LGBTQ+ community leaders in both cities say that is a problem.

Related: Trump administration seeks transgender patient records from NYU Langone

“This is no longer one hospital making an isolated decision. We are watching a pattern take hold,” Kei Williams, executive director of the New York LGBTQ+ advocacy group The New Pride Agenda, told Gothamist. “Major health systems are retreating from gender-affirming care for a specific community under the threat of investigations, funding losses and political retribution, leaving patients and families with fewer places to turn.”

“The continued attack on our community isn't going to benefit anybody,” said Lyndsey Sickler, a board member of the Pittsburgh group TransYOUniting, per CBS Pittsburgh. “It's going to cost them a lot more than $1 million … but they are not putting that math together.”