(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is weighing cutting off funds to hospitals that it says provide gender-related treatments for children and teenagers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The reported deliberations come after the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent a letter in May to a number of hospitals performing “pediatric sex trait modification procedures,” outlining what it said were concerns over quality standards and profits related to the procedures.
The CMS asked hospitals to respond in 30 days – a deadline which passed on Saturday.
In the letter, CMS Administrator Dr Mehmet Oz – the celebrity physician nominated by Trump – said the administration would not “turn a blind eye to procedures that lack a solid foundation of evidence and may result in lifelong harm”.
Nine children’s hospitals received the letters from the CMS demanding data on sex-reassignment surgeries, hormone therapy and puberty blockers, the WSJ said.
Some hospitals are re-examining or closing gender-related care programs, citing the CMS inquiry and potential loss of federal funds, the report added.
The Department of Health and Human Services and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
(Reporting by Preetika Parashuraman in BengaluruEditing by Gareth Jones and Andrew Heavens)
