Paxton touts ‘first’ detransition clinic opening in Texas after settlement with children’s hospital

Texas Children’s Hospital has opened a clinic for patients seeking medical care after undergoing gender-transition procedures, fulfilling a settlement requirement secured by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and a Senate candidate earlier this year.Paxton announced the opening Tuesday, describing the facility as the first of its kind in the country. But the announcement comes months after Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic agreed to a separate settlement with the Justice Department that also required it to provide care for detransitioners.The Washington Examiner asked Paxton’s office to clarify the distinction between the Texas Children’s clinic and the services Cleveland Clinic agreed to provide. The Houston-based hospital’s multidisciplinary clinic will provide detransition-related medical care to patients through age 21 who previously underwent gender-transition interventions. Patients older than 21 can receive related obstetric and gynecological care.“The nation’s first-ever Detransition Clinic is now open,” Paxton said Tuesday on social media, adding that he would ensure the facility provides care and support to patients he said had been harmed by gender-transition interventions.The hospital must fund the clinic’s services for its first five years, allowing patients to receive care at no cost, under the terms of its settlement with Paxton’s office and the Justice Department.The settlement, announced in May and finalized in July, resolved allegations that Texas Children’s improperly billed Texas Medicaid for gender-transition procedures, including by using false diagnosis codes. The hospital agreed to pay $10 million and stop providing the procedures to minors.The state and federal investigations alleged violations of laws governing healthcare billing and fraud. Texas Children’s has denied wrongdoing, saying it settled to bring the dispute to a close and focus its resources on patient care.The agreement also required the hospital to provide a range of services through the clinic, including endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counseling, psychiatry, psychotherapy, social work, and speech pathology.The Cleveland Clinic reached a similar agreement with the Justice Department and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, in June, less than a month after the Texas settlement was announced.Under that agreement, Cleveland Clinic agreed to pay $308,000 to resolve allegations of improper billing for procedures performed on minors and commit $2 million toward restorative care for detransitioners, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. The agreement also required the health system to stop providing specified gender-transition procedures to minors.Unlike the Texas settlement, which explicitly requires the creation of a dedicated detransition clinic, the Cleveland Clinic agreement required the health system to provide detransition-related services and take steps to publicize their availability, including establishing a dedicated webpage, phone number, and care coordinator.TEXAS DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL NOMINEE SPENDS THOUSANDS ON LIQUOR, COOKIES, AND MEXICAN FOODBoth agreements emerged from the Trump administration’s broader investigation into medical providers that offer gender-transition procedures to minors. The Justice Department framed the settlements as efforts to address alleged unlawful billing and provide care to patients seeking to reverse or manage the effects of prior treatment.The announcement comes nearly a week before the November midterm elections, in which Paxton will face Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico in what has become one of the most expensive and closely watched races in the country. Talarico has a narrow lead over Paxton according to recent polling averages.