Mehmet Oz speaking at a lectern.

Mehmet Oz is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Photo: Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

 

 

Trump Administration Weighs Eliminating Funds for Hospitals Offering Gender Care to Minors

 

Mehmet Oz, a top federal health official, leads efforts to crack down on the treatments for young people

 

June 30, 2025

By Liz Essley Whyte

Reprinted from The Wall Street Journal

 

Quick Summary

  • The Trump administration is considering cutting funds to hospitals providing gender-related treatments for children and teenagers.

  • Nine children’s hospitals received letters from CMS demanding data on sex-reassignment surgeries, hormone therapy and puberty blockers.

  • Some hospitals are re-examining or closing gender-related care programs, citing the CMS inquiry and potential loss of federal funds.

     

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is weighing cutting off funds to hospitals that it says provide gender-related treatments for children and teenagers, a move that would sharply escalate officials’ scrutiny of such programs.

The potential for increased federal scrutiny on gender-related healthcare comes after a 30-day deadline passed Saturday for nine children’s hospitals to respond to letters from Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator and celebrity physician known as Dr. Oz. The former heart surgeon and television host demanded data related to sex-reassignment surgeries, hormone therapy and puberty blockers.

“President Trump has been clear: America will protect kids from life-altering and experimental procedures,” Oz said. “CMS has warned hospitals and state Medicaid programs about these dangers—and is taking regulatory enforcement actions.”

Three hospitals—in Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle—told CMS they would respond to the probe, but none have yet sent the agency data, a Department of Health and Human Services official said. Two other hospitals, in Colorado and Ohio, told The Wall Street Journal they are planning to respond.

Though Oz’s letter didn’t threaten specific actions against the hospitals, CMS officials said they believe they have authority to stop funds for gender treatments for children and teenagers through Medicaid and Marketplace insurance plans. The agency is reviewing its authority to kick hospitals out of Medicaid altogether if they don’t cease providing the surgeries, the CMS officials said.

Children's Hospital Los Angeles exterior.

Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles intends to drop its program offering gender-related care to children. Photo: Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Many children’s hospitals are financially dependent on Medicaid.

CMS sets conditions that hospitals must meet in order to participate in Medicare and Medicaid, including health and safety standards.

At least one of the hospitals that received a letter, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, is closing its program offering gender-related care to children and specifically cited the CMS inquiry in its announcement. The hospital said more than 65% of its annual revenue comes from federal sources.

“These threats are no longer theoretical. The federal government has already cut off hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. academic and research institutions,” hospital leaders wrote in a June 12 letter to staff that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “The hospital has been left with no viable path forward.”

A spokesperson for Boston Children’s Hospital said it had an obligation under Massachusetts state law to provide access to gender-affirming care. “We uphold this responsibility with the utmost seriousness,” the spokesperson said, adding that the hospital is still reviewing the recent CMS letter.

The Oz outreach is part of the administration’s broader efforts to crack down on gender-related surgeries and treatments for minors. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo in April saying the Justice Department would investigate doctors and hospitals that perform the surgeries or that mislead families about drug treatments. The Supreme Court ruled in June that states could restrict the procedures for minors, and public opinion has grown more opposed to pro-transgender policies on bathrooms, sports and more.

The nine hospitals that were sent letters from CMS include Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s National Hospital, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Children’s Hospital Colorado, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, according to the HHS official.

CMS targeted the nine hospitals because the agency most took issue with their programs, the HHS official said.

Some hospitals re-examined their programs for transgender youth after a January executive order from the White House that took aim at what it called “surgical mutilation.”

One hospital that received a CMS letter, UPMC Children’s of Pittsburgh, said the hospital would no longer offer certain types of gender care, including puberty blockers. A spokesman didn’t specifically cite the CMS letter, but said: “As we continue to monitor executive-branch memos, directives and other guidance from the federal government, these actions have made it abundantly clear that our clinicians can no longer provide certain types of gender-affirming care without risk of criminal prosecution,” adding that the hospital would still offer behavioral health support.

A spokesperson for Cincinnati Children’s said that the hospital doesn’t provide sex-reassignment surgeries for minors and that the hospital “complies with Ohio law related to the provision of medical care and treatment for patients with gender-related conditions.”

A spokesperson for Colorado Children’s said the hospital has never offered gender-transition surgeries to patients under the age of 18.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Seattle Children’s, Children’s National Hospital and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Twenty-seven states now have policies or laws restricting gender-related treatments for youth, according to health-research nonprofit KFF. Advocates for the treatments say they can help children and teenagers who experience gender dysphoria, but debate has raged over the evidence for the interventions. An influential report from the U.K. last year declared “we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”

Ellen Kahn, senior vice president of equality programs at LGBT-advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said doctors, patients and families should make decisions about care, and that surgeries for transgender youth are rare.

“Studies consistently show that affirming care reduces depression, anxiety and suicide risk among transgender youth,” she said. “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should protect healthcare, not politicize it.”