Overview
- Lurie Children’s said it will not initiate puberty blockers or hormone therapy for patients under 18 who have not previously received those medications at the hospital.
- The hospital attributed the change to recent actions by HHS, including a Jan. 15 referral of Lurie to the department’s Office of Inspector General.
- HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart named six hospitals in the referral, including Lurie, Nemours Children’s Hospital (Delaware), Boston Children’s, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, NYU Langone Health, and OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
- In December, the administration proposed rules to cut Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors, following a federal declaration asserting such treatments are not safe or effective.
- Illinois and 20 other states sued in federal court in Oregon over the declaration, and the federal government agreed not to issue funding-loss notices to hospitals for now while the case proceeds.