When Texas Children’s Hospital’s “detransition clinic” opens in Houston, it will become the first facility of its kind, giving patients who regret life-altering procedures a chance at restorative care.
The facility, which has yet to announce an opening date, is part of an agreement with state and federal authorities to halt “gender-affirming care” at children’s hospitals while offering help to those who transitioned medically.
A 10-page settlement term sheet, recently obtained by The Epoch Times through an open records request to the Texas attorney general’s office, showed that services at the clinic will focus on multidisciplinary care.
Services are to include endocrinology, surgery, fertility counseling, psychiatry, psychotherapy, and speech pathology, among others.
In May and June, the Department of Justice (DOJ), along with the attorneys general of Texas and Ohio, secured settlements with large hospitals over allegations of fraudulent insurance billing practices related to “gender-affirming care” for children.
The hospitals denied wrongdoing in their billing practices or standards of care.
These agreements require the hospitals not only to cease transitioning procedures, but also to offer discounted or free restorative medical care to detransitioners.
Attorneys representing detransitioners and their clients praised the efforts of the DOJ and the states to assist those suffering from the consequences of life-altering medical changes.
Detransitioners are those who stopped or reversed a medical gender transition they started earlier in life.
’They Deserve Specialized Care’
Mark Trammell, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, which represents several detransitioners, including Chloe Cole, told The Epoch Times that restorative care for detransitioners was an important step.
“The creation of these clinics is a recognition that detransitioners are real, their experiences matter, and they deserve specialized care,” Trammell said in a text message.
Cole, who drew national attention after speaking out against subjecting children to gender-reassignment procedures such as hormones and surgeries, told The Epoch Times that healthcare for detransitioners was a long-needed win.
“The opening of Texas’s detransition clinic and the funding being put into care for those of us who need it most will transform a sorely neglected area of healthcare,” Cole said.
Cole, who was 15 when she received hormones and a double mastectomy that changed her life forever, said via text that it took five years to find medical professionals to help her.
When she decided to seek help, medical providers referred her back to the gender clinic that refused to address her needs, she said.
In Texas, attorney Josh Payne, founding partner of Campbell Miller Payne, which represents detransitioners, including Soren Aldaco, agreed that establishing a restorative care clinic was needed.
“Many detransitioners need specialized care for the rest of their lives to cope with the damage of lost body parts and the ability to function normally,” Payne told The Epoch Times in an email.
“Some detransitioners may not want to return to health centers that harmed them in the first place.
“Hospitals like Texas Children’s should establish a fund for victims to defray the costs of lifelong care and compensate them directly for their injuries.”
Aldaco, a detransitioner whose fight to continue her medical malpractice lawsuit put her in the spotlight, won her appeal before the Texas Supreme Court on June 26.
By a unanimous decision, the Texas court reversed the dismissal of her lawsuit, ruling that the statute of limitations had not expired, meaning her medical malpractice case against her former therapist could proceed.
The statute of limitations for medical malpractice suits is two years in many cases, which is a major hurdle for many detransitioners.
Aldaco was 19 when she had her breasts removed.
“If you’re a 13-year-old on puberty blockers, you might not realize you’re infertile until you’re 26 and you just got married, and you’re trying to have kids,” she told The Epoch Times in a February interview.
Aldaco’s story is like those of many others who spent years “transitioning” as teenagers, only to change their minds later in life.
First-of-its-Kind Clinic
Under an agreement reached on May 15, Texas Children’s Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital in the country, is set to create the nation’s first detransition clinic.
In an email to The Epoch Times, the hospital declined to confirm an opening date or comment about the facility’s future operation.
The Houston-based hospital will establish the detransition clinic to provide medical care to patients who received gender transitioning procedures through age 21, and obstetric-gynecology care for those over age 21, according to documents.
Additionally, the hospital will provide clinic services at no cost to patients for a period of five years.
Texas Children’s will create and maintain an easily accessible landing page on its website describing the available services. The facility will be listed on the hospital’s donation website, and the funds will support free detransitioning services beyond the initial five years of operation.
Also, the hospital will amend its bylaws to ensure swift dismissal for any physician who violates the state’s prohibition on medical interventions aimed at transitioning minors.
The hospital will pay more than $10 million in damages and civil penalties to Texas and the federal government to resolve a three-year federal and state investigation into the hospital’s alleged improper billing practices to the state’s Medicaid program to transition children, according to a press release by the Texas attorney general from May.
Texas Children’s agreed to permanently fire and revoke privileges for five “woke” doctors who performed harmful medical procedures on Texans, according to the release.
The hospital said in a May press release that it had agreed to a settlement “to protect [its] resources from endless and costly litigation.”
“This settlement will allow us to redirect those precious resources to focus on the life-saving care and groundbreaking discoveries of our exceptional clinicians and scientists,” the release said.
According to the Texas attorney general, Texas Children’s billed Texas Medicaid for “unallowable and illegal ‘gender-transition’ interventions, including by using false diagnosis codes.”
Nonetheless, the DOJ commended the hospital for its cooperation during the investigation and its commitment to providing care for detransitioners.
Prestigious Clinic Agreement
On June 5, the DOJ announced that the Cleveland Clinic, a renowned medical institution in Ohio, had reached a similar settlement with the federal government and the state.
The agreement requires the clinic to provide restorative care to detransitioners and prohibits the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries for minors for the next 20 years.
Like in Texas, the clinic was under investigation for allegedly falsifying billing to cover transgender procedures for minors. The Cleveland Clinic denied any wrongdoing, according to the government agreement.
As part of the settlement, the clinic will pay $308,000 in penalties and provide $2 million in restorative care for detransitioners who face financial barriers to such services.
The care offered will include hormonal balancing, endocrine care, surgical revision and reconstruction, fertility restoration, psychological support—including grief counseling—and assistance with insurance coordination for those who transitioned before the age of 19.
“We are pleased to have worked collaboratively toward a resolution related to an unintentional coding issue involving a small number of patients,“ Cleveland Clinic said in a release on the settlement. ”We remain focused on providing exceptional care to our patients and communities. We have complied and will continue to comply with all federal and state laws.”
The clinic said it would continue to provide “care for LGBTQ+ patients 19 and older.”
Bigger Picture
The settlements follow a successful malpractice judgment for a New York detransitioner, a wave of clinic closures, and restrictions on “gender-affirming care.”
They are part of a larger federal effort to examine the billing practices of pediatric hospitals that transition children as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to oppose such procedures.
Last July, the DOJ announced that it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics involved in performing transgender medical procedures on children. The department’s investigation includes allegations of healthcare fraud, false statements, and more.
“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a press statement last year.
According to court documents, some of the hospitals subpoenaed include Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Children’s Minnesota, Children’s National Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Michigan Medicine, NYU Langone, Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, Rhode Island Hospital, Seattle Children’s Hospital, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and a Seattle-based telehealth provider called QueerDoc.
However, it’s been an uphill battle for Trump’s DOJ, with many administrative subpoenas quashed or limited by lawsuits filed by hospitals or former patients.
For example, the federal government subpoenaed NYU Langone for “documents sufficient to identify each patient (by name, date of birth, Social Security number, address, and parent/guardian information) who was prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.”
Courts appear hesitant to force hospitals to release individual medical information.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy said the DOJ’s request to Rhode Island Hospital for “intimate medical details from one of this country’s most vulnerable populations constitutes a drastic overreach of its investigative authority.”
The DOJ did not directly address an Epoch Times query about whether further settlements were expected with children’s hospitals or clinics providing transitioning procedures for children.
Instead, the DOJ responded via email: “When providers misrepresent the truth to children, parents, insurers, or federal healthcare programs to promote or obtain payment for interventions that can permanently harm children, that is not care—it is unlawful deception. The Department of Justice will continue using every available tool to protect children, parents, taxpayers, and the integrity of our healthcare system.”
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