‘If they are willing to lie about the fundamental nature of men and women, what else are they willing to lie about?’ report contributor says
A number of universities and their related hospital systems are named in a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report alleging billing and coding fraud in pediatric “gender medicine.”
The 64-page report, “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of Gender Medicine,” released in August, names a number of academic medical institutions, including Boston Children’s Hospital, the Harvard University-affiliated Fenway Health, and the University of Texas Southwestern’s medical center.
The report alleges the pediatric medical industry has become lucrative, billing approximately $120 million since 2019. The authors assert that the industry is turning children who are confused about their gender into “captive patients” who are dependent on drugs known as puberty blockers.
Additionally, the report alleges dozens of healthcare providers engaged in “potentially illegal billing practices” by submitting Medicaid “diagnosis codes that did not accurately reflect patients’ underlying conditions in order to obtain insurance coverage for sex rejecting procedures.”
Neeraja Deshpande, a policy analyst for Independent Women’s Forum and contributor to the report, told The College Fix in a recent interview that academia-linked “organizations [like] Boston Children’s have become a training pipeline for this wave of medicine.”
Deshpande described the transgender medical industry as a “house of cards,” saying, “Medical fraud is just one part of what they’re willing to lie about … If they are willing to lie about the fundamental nature of men and women, what else are they willing to lie about?”
The report cites a Texas lawsuit filed by Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2024 alleging physicians at UT Southwestern are prescribing transgender hormone drugs in an illegal fashion to minors and using fraudulent billing codes.
Additionally, it points to allegations of fraudulent billing and coding at Boston Children’s Hospital and its affiliate Fenway Health, which is connected to Harvard Medical School.
“Fenway Health openly admits to the use of vague diagnosis codes while also acknowledging this practice could carry criminal and civil consequences,” the report claims, citing the medical group’s own website.
However, the report does not determine that Fenway, Boston Children’s, or any other “gender clinic” is guilty of fraud.
In August, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy asked the Department of Justice and the HHS Office of Inspector General to further investigate all the hospitals and clinics identified in the report for possible violations of federal law, according to a department news release.
None of the media relations offices that The Fix contacted for comment on the allegations responded to multiple emails over the past three weeks. The Fix contacted Boston Children’s Hospital, UT Southwestern, Harvard Medical School, and Fenway Health.
Reuters reported that Boston Children’s was “reviewing the report” but has not released an official statement.
Other academic institutions mentioned in the report include the University of Michigan, Texas Tech University, UC Irvine and UC San Francisco, University of Minnesota, Vanderbilt University, Albany Medical College, University of Oklahoma, Northshore University Health System affiliated with the University of Chicago, New York University, and University of Maryland. In most cases, the universities’ health systems or medical schools are mentioned, as opposed to the university itself.
A key motive of “gender medicine” is money, the report alleges.
The system creates chronic patients who become dependent on medical treatments, follow-ups, and lifelong supervision for their “gender-affirming care” and surgeries, according to the report.
Without surgery, if a patient begins a “gender” transition while still a minor, their lifetime medical spending can reach up to $75,000; it can become significantly higher if the patient undergoes surgery to remove healthy body parts in an attempt to change their sex, the report alleges.
Deshpande explained one possible reason for this, telling The Fix that pediatricians are among the lowest compensated category of healthcare professionals “because the kids they care for generally get better.”
Overall, she believes the transgender medical system actively goes against medicine’s philosophy of “first, do no harm,” which is derived from the Hippocratic Oath.
Deshpande said that in the process of pushing the idea that there is something wrong with the bodies of young children, doctors and activists are interfering with natural processes such as puberty.
“The point of gender medicine is to say ‘you’re broken,’” she told The Fix.
Her organization, the Independent Women’s Forum, has been highlighting the stories of young adults who have detransitioned after having their bodies mutilated by the gender medicine industry.
Testimonies featured on IWF’s Identity Crisis project include Fox Varian, a detransitioner who won the first successful medical malpractice lawsuit in January. At the age of 16, Varian underwent a double mastectomy after being told that it would help her gender dysphoria.
The HHS report is one example of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on pediatric “gender medicine.”
Vice President J.D. Vance urged Americans — especially parents — to read the “Wolves in White Coats” report in a post on X.
Soon after Trump entered his second term in January 2025, he signed an executive order stating that the federal government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
Around the same time, a survey from Pew Research Center found “that majorities of U.S. adults favor or strongly favor laws and policies that: Require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth (66%)…Ban health care professionals from providing care related to gender transitions for minors (56%).”
Deshpande told The Fix, “We hope this report helps show people that they can trust their gut…I hope people stop giving authority to these liars.”
MORE: ASU’s ‘Empowerment Lab’ teaches parents to help teens ‘transition’
