SPRINGFIELD — A letter sent to parents and guardians last week informs them that Baystate Health will no longer prescribe hormones or puberty blockers to transgender people under 18.
“As the health care regulatory industry continues to evolve, we have been assessing how we can best serve the long-term needs of our families,” the Feb. 9 letter reads. “While Baystate Health will continue to provide gender-affirming mental health counseling for children and adolescents, we will no longer prescribe gender-affirming hormone medications or puberty blocking medications to patients under 18 years old.”
The letter is signed by Dr. Matthew D. Di Guglielmo, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baystate Health.
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“Please know that this decision was not made lightly,” Di Guglielmo writes.
The letter did not offer a clear reason why the hospital made the decision to terminate the services, but it comes at a time when health care for transgender youth is under attack by the federal government.
A Baystate spokesperson said in a statement on Monday that the decision is in reaction to regulations that threaten Medicaid and Medicare funding.
“Nearly 70% of Baystate Health patients rely on Medicaid and Medicare, and preserving access to care for these individuals and all others in our community is a responsibility we take seriously,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
In December, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released draft rules in that would cut Medicare and Medicaid funding to health care facilities that provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth, such as prescribing puberty blocking medications.
Another proposed rule would bar Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program from paying for gender-affirming care for people under 18.
The American Academy of Pediatrics criticized the proposed rules in December.
“Patients, their families and their physicians — not politicians or government officials — should be the ones to make decisions together about what care is best for them,” Dr. Susan J. Kressly, president of the organization, said in a statement.
Public comments on the proposed rules are due Tuesday.
The rules stem from President Donald Trump’s executive order “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which says the federal government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.”
Baystate says it is working with Transhealth, an independent nonprofit health care organization in Northampton, to transfer patients care to its facility.
“By transferring care to Transhealth, we can place your loved one in the capable hands of a specialized team whose sole focus is supporting patients and families like yours,” the letter says.
Transhealth CEO Jo Erwin said in a statement that the organization is working with the hospital on the transfers.
“Transhealth welcomes trans youth from Baystate Health as new patients,” Erwin wrote. “We have hired additional providers and are ready to deliver expert, compassionate, trans health care to all youth from Baystate.”
Under the federal pressure, hospitals across the country have made similar decisions to stop providing certain health care for transgender young people.
Earlier this month in California, for example, the state’s largest children’s hospital system said it would not provide hormones to youth under 18, according to NPR.
More than 40 hospitals have stopped offering some gender-affirming care to transgender youth about a year after Trump’s executive order, STAT News reported.
Enterprise Editor Daniel Jackson contributed to this report.