Texas will establish the nation’s first detransition clinic after Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a landmark $10 million settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital for illegally billing Medicaid for gender transition procedures on minors.
Historic Settlement Details
The settlement terminates five doctors who performed transgender interventions on children and requires the hospital to stop all gender transition services. Texas Children’s Hospital will create a multidisciplinary detransition clinic to help young people recover from medications and surgeries administered during attempted gender transitions. The hospital’s Healthcare Program Enforcement Division conducted a year-long investigation before reaching the agreement announced Friday.
Paxton called the settlement a monumental victory in his press release. He stated the agreement reflects a fundamental cultural shift away from gender ideology and ensures accountability for those who harmed children. The attorney general pledged to investigate any Texas hospital that performs similar medical interventions on minors going forward.
Clinic Operations and Funding
The new detransition clinic will provide free services to patients for its first five years, fully funded by Texas Children’s Hospital. The facility will offer comprehensive care to reverse damage caused by previous medical interventions. The hospital must also revise its bylaws to comply with Texas law, implementing penalties for physicians who encourage gender dysphoria patients to pursue transition treatments.
Texas Children’s Hospital agreed to new compliance and ethics measures as part of the settlement. The institution will no longer provide any gender transition services and must ensure its medical staff adheres to state regulations protecting minors from these procedures. The $10 million payment compensates the state for improper Medicaid billing related to prohibited treatments.
Legal and Medical Implications
The settlement establishes a precedent for other states examining similar medical practices at children’s hospitals. Texas law prohibits gender transition procedures for minors, yet the hospital had continued billing the state’s Medicaid program for such services. The agreement resolves these violations while creating a new treatment pathway for young people experiencing regret over transition decisions.
Paxton emphasized the clinic represents the hospital becoming part of the solution after previously contributing to the problem. The facility will address growing concerns about young people who received irreversible medical treatments and now seek to return to living as their biological sex. This settlement may serve as a model for other states pursuing accountability in pediatric medical care.