JD Vance and RFK Jr. Refer Hospitals and Clinics to DOJ in Response to 'Wolves in White Coats' Report
Vice President J.D. Vance referred hundreds of hospitals and clinics listed in a new report to the Justice Department for alleged fraud in relation to providing transgender-related care to minors.
Vance posted a link to the report, “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine,’” which he wrote contains “deeply disturbing allegations.”
“For years now, some hospitals and healthcare providers have been subjecting children to horrific, experimental treatments in service of radical gender ideologies,” the vice president explained.
“It turns out that convincing vulnerable children to reject their gender can create patients for life, earning hospitals tens of thousands of dollars in additional revenue per child,” Vance added.
“The report contains deeply disturbing allegations, and I encourage every American and every parent to read it. More than just pushing these procedures on kids, hospitals and providers may have been defrauding Medicaid and private insurers by using misleading or fraudulent billing codes to get insurance to cover the costs,” the vice president said.
For years now, some hospitals and healthcare providers have been subjecting children to horrific, experimental treatments in service of radical gender ideologies. Today, thanks to the Wolves in White Coats report released by @HHSGov, we know why: profit. It turns out that… pic.twitter.com/B7K7iumpYC
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 13, 2026
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated, “The findings raise serious questions about what families were told, what insurers were told, and how these procedures were billed.”
“Doctors and hospitals must put children’s health ahead of ideology and financial gain,” Kennedy further said in a Thursday HHS news release. “This report identifies troubling billing practices that demand scrutiny. HHS will follow the evidence, protect taxpayers, and hold accountable anyone who broke the law or violated the trust of patients and families. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are restoring transparency and integrity to American medicine.”
Vance said, “Today, Secretary Kennedy and I referred hospitals and clinics identified by this review to the Department of Justice and the HHS inspector general for possible violations of federal law. These allegations are crazy, and they demand investigation.”
Some 225 hospitals established pediatric gender programs, according to HHS.
In his Thursday criminal referral letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche, the vice president wrote, “Some pediatric gender clinics and children’s hospitals have apparently used misleading or even fraudulent diagnostic and billing codes to ensure that insurance companies will cover the procedures.”
This Administration will not stand idly by while some in the medical community harm our children in search of profit. That is why today I am referring this matter to the Department of Justice to launch a federal criminal investigation. We will stop this fraud and restore trust in… pic.twitter.com/FCAsl4wpY4
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 13, 2026
The alleged fraudulent billings were often listed as “endocrine disorder, unspecified.”
Vance noted that a study showed only 4.7 percent of patients diagnosed with the condition actually had it.
A separate study documented a recent 30 percent increase in endocrine disorder diagnoses despite the unlikelihood of such an unexplainable spike.
“This miscoding has allowed hospitals to bill insurance companies tens of millions of dollars for medications like puberty-blocking drugs,” Vance wrote Blanche.
Politico pointed out, “The report alleges many providers may be using incorrect diagnostic codes to get insurance coverage for gender-affirming care procedures, which aren’t always covered by commercial insurance. HHS analyzed claims in a nationwide database from 2015 to 2025 and found that public and private insurance was billed nearly $50 million for puberty-blocking drugs for patients ages 9 to 17 who had an endocrine disorder diagnosis.”
“In January, the Justice Department announced it made more than $5.7 billion in health fraud recoveries. Some of those recoveries stemmed from illegal kickbacks by insurers to brokers to boost enrollment, but others were linked to unsupported or invalid diagnosis codes,” the news outlet said.
Politico noted that the Wolves in White Coats report comes two days after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cut off Medicaid funding to hospitals offering so-called transgender care for minors.
In December, a federal judge blocked a CMS proposed rule that would have cut off both Medicare and Medicaid funding to hospitals providing the procedures.
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