(ConservativeSense.com) – Republican lawmakers in Texas are calling on the Lone Star State’s Health & Human Services Commission to launch an investigation into allegations against the Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) for Medicaid fraud and child abuse by administering so-called “gender-affirming care” to minors.
On Tuesday, June 18, City Journal published a report by Manhattan Institute journalist Christopher Rufo, who also serves as a board member of the New College of Florida, detailing the firsthand experiences of Vanessa Sivadge, a nurse at TCH.
Sivadge testified to witnessing a rapid increase in children identifying as “transgender” visiting the hospital over the last three years. The nurse said these children were encouraged by the facility to “transition,” bypassing any other possible treatments for the underlying issues. The nurse also claimed she discovered evidence that two doctors, David Paul and Richard Roberts, violated state law by prescribing cross-sex hormones to multiple children while they were enrolled in Medicaid.
A few days after the report was published, the TCH removed its press contact information page from their official website and closed its pediatric gender clinic temporarily.
On Monday, June 24, Texas Reps. Mayes Middleton and Brian Harrison sent a letter to the executive health commissioner and the health inspector general calling for an “immediate” investigation. That letter expressed concern over “flagrant misuse” of state benefits to pay for so-called “gender-affirming care,” which has been “long excluded” in Texas from reimbursement by Medicaid.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton promised to investigate the fraud charges and allegations of medical malpractice. According to Rufo, if the doctors are convicted, they could face up to a decade in prison.
Rufo’s report is only the latest in the journalist’s beat. Last year, he published an interview with an ex-employee of the TCH who detailed how Dr. Roberts disregarded the medical records of patients indicating “serious mental health issues” and proceeded to prescribe hormones and transgender surgeries to confused minors. That whistleblower was anonymous at the time, but has since come forward as Dr. Eithan Haim, a general surgeon who used to work at TCH, who is now facing an indictment from the Justice Department.
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