Dec 10 (Reuters) – Texas has accused two doctors of fraudulently billing Medicaid for gender-affirming treatment they provided to transgender minors in violation of state law, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office announced on Wednesday.
The petitions against May Lau, opens new tab and Brett Cooper, opens new tab, which amend lawsuits that the state filed against them last year, mark the first time that a U.S. state has brought healthcare fraud allegations against medical providers for administering treatment such as hormone therapy to minors, Paxton’s office said in a release.
Sign up here.
Texas initially sued Lau and Cooper for prescribing hormone therapy to dozens of minors in violation of a 2023 state law, and both have denied wrongdoing. Lau surrenderedher Texas medical license, opens new tab in October after she moved her practice to Oregon.
Now, the state claims that the doctors also falsified records, altered diagnosis codes and submitted deceptive billing information to Medicaid in order to conceal the illegal treatments. If found liable for fraud, the doctors could be ordered to pay treble damages, or three times the amount of improper Medicaid reimbursements, along with thousands of dollars in fines.
“Under my watch, the transgender activists using their positions in the medical field to illegally ‘transition’ children will face the full force of the law,” Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement.
The amended petitions were filed in state court in Collin County, Texas, on December 5.
Lawyers for Cooper, whose case is scheduled to go to trial in May, and Lau did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The petitions are the latest escalation of a crackdown on providers of gender-affirming care for transgender youth by Republican-led states and President Donald Trump’s administration. Conservative lawmakers in 25 states have in recent years adopted bans on various forms of gender-affirming care for adolescents. The U.S. Supreme Court in June upheld one such ban in Tennessee, delivering a major setback for transgender rights advocates.
Medical associations, noting that gender dysphoria is associated with higher rates of suicide, have said gender-affirming care can be life-saving, and that long-term studies show its effectiveness.
Trump in a January executive order directed prosecutors to prioritize investigations involving transgender youth care, and the U.S. Justice Department earlier this year said it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics involved in performing gender-affirming procedures on children.Sixteen Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in August claiming the Trump administration had violated the U.S. Constitution by trampling on states’ ability to regulate medicine. The administration moved to dismiss that case last month.
The cases are Texas v. Lau and Texas v. Cooper, in the District Court of Collin County, Texas, Nos. 493-07676-2024 and 493-08026-2024.
For Lau: Alexander Wolf and others from Steptoe; Nicole LeBoeuf and Amy Ooi of LeBoeuf Law
For Cooper: Avi Moshenberg of Lawson & Moshenberg
For the state: Johnathan Stone, Robert Farquharson and others from the Texas Attorney General’s office
Read more:
US states sue over Trump’s targeting of providers of transgender youth medical careUS Justice Department directs investigations over gender-affirming careTrump orders end to federal support for transgender healthcare for minorsUS Supreme Court upholds Tennessee law banning youth transgender care
Reporting by Daniel WIessner in Albany, New York
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
