🔒Lawmakers could subpoena CT Children’s over gender care deal with Trump

The Democratic co-chairs of the state legislature’s Human Services Committee say residents deserve to know the details of a Connecticut hospital’s deal with the Trump administration to end gender-affirming care for children. And they’re willing to exercise their subpoena power to get it, according to a Tuesday press release.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had reached an agreement with Connecticut Children’s to resolve the agency’s investigation into the hospital’s gender-affirming care services for children. The deal included a “commitment” to stop providing gender-affirming care to minors, including hormones and puberty blockers, as well as a monetary penalty and an additional $500,000 in medical care to people “living with the harmful consequences of ‘gender affirming care,’” according to the DOJ announcement.

Human Services Committee co-Chairs Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, and Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, sent a letter to Connecticut Children’s earlier this week requesting copies of the agreement and all correspondence between the hospital and the Justice Department, according to a press release from Democratic legislators.

State law gives legislative committee chairs the power to subpoena witnesses and require the production of documents related to matters under investigation by their committees.

“We have an obligation to the people of Connecticut,” Gilchrest said. “We’ve said that we are a safe state to be able to receive these services, and so I think it is incumbent on myself as a lawmaker to understand what this agreement is.”

The lawmakers’ press release also accused the hospital of violating its legal requirement as a Medicaid provider not to discriminate against patients.

Gilchrest said lawmakers have a meeting with hospital leaders next week. She said she’s hoping to get more details on the deal and the hospital’s motivations for entering into it.

In an emailed statement, Connecticut Children’s spokesperson Monica Buchanan said, “Throughout this extraordinarily difficult process, protecting our patients and their private health information has been our first and most important obligation.”

Buchanan added, “Connecticut Children’s did not turn over any patient protected health information to the federal government during this investigation or settlement process. Protecting that information was a line we would not cross, and safeguarding the privacy of our patients will remain non-negotiable.”

Politics vs. policy

House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said he agrees it’s reasonable for Connecticut lawmakers to discuss the deal from a policy standpoint, but that publicly threatening the hospital in a press release is “blatantly political.”

“We shouldn’t be leading with threats of subpoenas. I think Connecticut is better than that,” Candelora said.

Candelora took issue with the timing of the release as well, saying the Human Services Committee co-Chairs sent a letter to Connecticut Children’s, received a response from the hospital agreeing to a meeting, but sent out a press release anyway.

“It reeks of politics,” Candelora said.

Buchanan of Connecticut Children’s also took issue with the lawmakers’ actions, saying hospital leaders “welcome the conversation,” but the letter was the first correspondence they’d received from either legislator about the settlement, and that the hospital responded immediately.

“We are disappointed that serious conclusions about Connecticut Children’s and the circumstances surrounding this settlement were made publicly before Senator Lesser or Representative Gilchrest had an opportunity to speak with our leadership and understand the facts,” stated Buchanan.

Last summer, in the wake of federal policy changes, both Yale New Haven Health and Connecticut Children’s made changes to the gender-affirming services offered to children.

Yale stopped providing medication treatment, but continued to provide mental health services as part of its gender program. Connecticut Children’s shut down its program altogether (though Buchanan specified that the hospital continues to provide mental health services to all children, including those diagnosed with gender dysphoria).

Last month, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that Medicaid and CHIP funds could no longer be used to pay for youth gender-affirming care. But a document obtained by NPR in July showed the federal Department of Health and Human Services would likely not be following through on its most serious threat to finalize a proposed rule that would have blocked all federal funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children.

Lesser said he’s been trying, with limited success, to engage in meaningful conversations with Connecticut Children’s leadership since the announcement last year. He said he believes it’s important for state residents to know about what’s going on.

“I could have sent a threatening letter and not publicized it, but I think it’s a matter of significant public interest,” Lesser said.