Texas Children’s Hospital will pay $10 million, open a detransition clinic, and permanently cut ties with doctors who performed “gender-transition” interventions on minors under a landmark settlement finalized by Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The settlement stemmed from an investigation alongside the U.S. Department of Justice regarding violations of Medicaid policies.
The case originated over allegations that Texas Children’s “knowingly submitted false claims to Medicaid by prescribing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and other gender-transition treatments to minors in violation of Texas Medicaid policies, and billing those prohibited services to federal and state healthcare programs using fraudulent diagnosis codes.”
As part of the settlement, Texas Children’s is required to build and operate the first ever free, full-service detransition clinic, permanently terminate and revoke the licenses of several physicians, amend its bylaws to specify staff engaging in gender mutilation procedures results in immediate loss of clinical privileges, and pay $10 million in penalties.
The state of Texas will receive more than $8.5 million from the settlement.
“This historic settlement is a resounding defeat for the radical gender ideology that has preyed on Texas children under the guise of ‘care,’” said Paxton. “Texas Children’s has agreed to pay millions back to Texas. The detransition clinic, which is the first of its kind, must open within months. Activist doctors who harmed children have been fired.”
“This settlement sends an unmistakable message: if you put radical ideology over children’s health, my office will go after you,” continued Paxton.
The controversy over Texas Children’s Hospital began several years ago when it publicly promoted gender mutilating procedures for children before announcing the discontinuation of the practice amid mounting public scrutiny.
In 2023, Texas Children’s once again came under scrutiny after whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim, at the time a practicing physician at the hospital, disclosed documents that indicated that the hospital was still allegedly administering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children despite assuring the public such practices had ended.
Haim later came under scrutiny by the Biden administration over allegations he improperly accessed patient information as part of the disclosures.
Vanessa Sivadge, a pediatric nurse, also came forward with allegations that doctors at Texas Children’s were improperly billing Medicaid for gender mutilating procedures, despite state policy excluding such procedures from coverage.
“This is a story of redemption. Of true justice,” posted Sivadge on social media. “The hospital who once sanctioned the harming of children is now setting the standard for their help and healing, at zero cost.”
“It’s a story that only God could write, and I am so humbled and honored to have played a very small role in what will become a center for hope for countless detransitioners who have nowhere to turn to for their ongoing care. This victory is as much theirs as it is mine.”
As a first settlement of its kind, Burke Law Group, who represented Sivadge in the case, says it will establish “a legal framework for pending DOJ settlements in other states.”
