Vice President JD Vance has called on the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of fraud in pediatric gender transition treatments, according to a report obtained by Fox News Digital. The report, titled "Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of 'Gender Medicine,'" suggests that some healthcare providers may have fraudulently billed insurance companies for sex-change procedures performed on minors.
The HHS report indicates that over $60 million in insurance claims for treatments, including puberty blockers for adolescents as young as 13, were billed between 2015 and 2025. The report alleges that some providers aggressively treated children with hormonal issues, endocrine system problems, or early onset puberty with transgender care, subsequently billing insurance companies. It also attributes some of the expansion of gender surgery coverage to policies promoted during the Biden administration.
Vance, in a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche, expressed concerns that providers may have intentionally misled children to receive transgender treatment. He cited a study suggesting that only about 4.7 percent of patients diagnosed with "endocrine disorder, unspecified" actually had that condition, and noted a 30 percent increase in such diagnoses despite it being unlikely to stem from a substantial rise in pediatric endocrine disorders.
According to the report, the average healthcare cost for a minor is approximately $3,000, but transgender treatments can escalate to $75,000 without surgery and nearly $170,000 with surgical intervention. The report details how some healthcare providers may profit from lifelong medical costs, including prescriptions, surgeries, and interventions years after a patient reaches adulthood.
The report identifies approximately 225 hospitals and health systems across the country with established pediatric gender programs. Vance contends in his letter that healthcare providers knowingly pushed misdiagnoses to insurance companies, using billing codes to compel coverage. "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 wrote. "If they have done so intentionally, thereby perpetrating a fraud on Medicaid or on private insurers, they should go to prison."
The HHS report drew upon peer-reviewed scientific literature, hospital records, whistleblower testimony, nationwide insurance claims analyses, and interviews with patients and parents. Vance stated, "Rather than allow the proliferation of harmful, sex-rejecting procedures on our children, we must send a clear message that any hospitals and providers that have participated in these practices will face justice."
This development follows actions taken by the Biden administration to expand access to healthcare, including gender-affirming care. Executive Order 13988, signed by President Biden shortly after his inauguration in 2021, aimed to prevent discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation and included access to healthcare. In May 2021, the HHS Office of Civil Rights began enforcing a provision of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits sex discrimination, stating in March 2022 that "gender affirming care for minors, when medically appropriate and necessary, improves their physical and mental health."
Another executive order signed by Biden in June 2022 directed federal agencies, including HHS, to address discrimination and barriers faced by LGBTQI+ individuals and families by expanding access to comprehensive healthcare.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. also reportedly sent a letter to HHS Inspector General Thomas March Bell listing individual hospitals and clinicians exhibiting "potentially anomalous billing patterns." The report calls for further review of insurance coding practices that facilitate claims for gender medicine.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Justice Department for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.