Texas Children’s Hospital Settles with Feds for Performing Sex-Rejecting Procedures on Minors

Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) will pay millions of dollars in civil penalties and establish America’s first ever “detransition” clinic to avoid federal prosecution for alleged fraud, the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed today,

The groundbreaking settlement is the first struck since last April, when the department began investigating federal crimes related to hospitals and doctors performing sex-rejecting procedures on children.

“The Justice Department will use every weapon at its disposal to end the destructive and discredited practice of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ for children,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a press release.

“Today’s resolution protects vulnerable children, holds providers accountable and ensures those harmed receive the care they need.”

The settlement, which TCH entered with the DOJ and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, requires the hospital to:

• Stop performing sex-rejecting surgeries and hormone interventions on minors.
• Fire and de-credential five doctors who performed sex-rejecting procedures on minors.
• Pay $10 million in damages and civil penalties to “resolve allegations” that it committed insurance fraud to pay for sex-rejecting procedures.
• Commit to establish a clinic dedicated to “the provision of medical care to detransitioners.”

TCH will cover all costs of the detransition clinic for the first five years, per Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In exchange, the DOJ will not prosecute TCH for allegedly:

• Stealing taxpayer money to fund sex-rejecting procedures for minors.
• Misleading minors and their families about the long-term effects of sex-rejecting procedures.

The hospital cooperated fully with the investigation, according to the DOJ’s press release.

Allegations of fraud began dogging TCH in June 2024, when Vanessa Sivadge, a nurse practitioner in the hospital’s endocrinology program, told investigative journalist Christopher Rufo that some TCH patients paid for sex-rejecting treatments using Texas’ Medicaid program.

Sivadge’s testimony prompted state and federal investigations into the hospital. Representatives Pete Sessions (TX) and Lisa McClain (MI), members of the House Oversight Committee, launched a probe into TCH in July 2024, writing:

We are concerned that medical providers at TCH are falsifying diagnosis codes for patients seeking gender transition care to obtain Medicaid payment for noncovered services.

Investigators expressed specific interest in an incident in which a TCH doctor allegedly diagnosed a female patient with testosterone deficiency and hypergonadism so Medicaid would cover her sex-rejecting testosterone treatments.

TCH fired Sivadge in August 2024 for exposing their fraud, she maintains.

No matter how cooperative the hospital may seem in 2026, Sivadge’s story is just one example of how the hospital’s deceptive conduct and radical commitment to gender ideology has left a path of destruction in its wake.

When Dr. Eithan Haim exposed the hospital for continuing to perform sex-rejecting procedures on minors after telling the public it had stopped, he became the target of a rabid DOJ prosecution based on faulty facts.

For nearly a year, until the suit was dismissed in January 2025, Dr. Haim and his growing family wondered if he would spend the next decade in prison.

In January 2026, Dr. Haim sued TCH, Baylor College of Medicine and their representatives for feeding the DOJ the false information which led to his wrongful prosecution.

After so many years of turmoil, the Daily Citizen asked Dr. Haim how today’s settlement feels.

“It is not possible to communicate what it is like when the federal leviathan is weaponized to destroy your life — not because you committed a crime, but because you upheld one of [medicine’s] most sacred virtues,” he told us, continuing:

I’ve seen this evil up close and lived with that terror every second of every day for years. I’ve also witnessed extraordinary courage, honor and dignity from those who sacrificed alongside me.

I always believed [that sacrifice] would one day be worth it.

Today is that day.

Additional Articles and Resources

House Oversight Committee Investigates Texas Children’s Medicaid Fraud

Nurse Whistleblower Lobbies Texas Senate to Investigate Fraud at Texas Children’s Hospital

Texas Children’s Hospital Embroiled in Fraud Scandal as Haim Case Kicks Off

Whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim Sues Texas Children’s Hospital Over Malicious Prosecution

Haim Vindicated – DOJ Dismisses Case Against Whistleblower

President Trump Signs Order Protecting Children from Transgender Medical Interventions

HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender Medical Interventions for Minors