Mount Sinai Settles With DOJ, Ends Pediatric Gender Treatments, Will Pay $2M in Care for Those Harmed

The Justice Department announced Friday, September 4, that Mount Sinai Health System has agreed to stop providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender-transition surgeries to minors. The settlement requires Mount Sinai to pay an undisclosed monetary penalty and dedicate $2 million to free medical care for people harmed by treatments they received as children, according to the Justice Department's announcement.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the deal proof the department is "holding accountable medical providers that violate federal law and endanger children through so-called gender-affirming care." Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, who runs the department's Civil Division, said Mount Sinai joins "a growing number of hospitals" that have "recognized the medical scandal of sex-rejecting procedures." Ryan Raybould, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas whose office helped run the investigation, called it "a step in the right direction."

Mount Sinai disputes the framing. Spokesperson Lucia Lee said in a statement reported by Newsday that the hospital entered the agreement "so that Mount Sinai would not be compelled to produce these highly sensitive patient records to the grand jury," and that the settlement "contains an express denial of any wrongdoing on Mount Sinai's part." The Epoch Times likewise noted the claims resolved are allegations only, with no determination of liability.

A federal appeals court in Manhattan issued a preliminary injunction on July 6 blocking the release of the patient records the Justice Department had sought from Mount Sinai, NYU Langone and other New York City hospitals, according to Newsday. Mount Sinai's stated reason for settling was to avoid handing over those records, not an admission that the underlying care was unlawful.

A Nationwide Pattern

Mount Sinai is not the first hospital system to settle. The Daily Signal reported similar agreements already reached with Texas Children's Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Connecticut Children's Hospital. The Mount Sinai deal is the first publicly announced settlement involving a major New York hospital system.

The investigation traces back to a January 2025 executive order from President Trump, "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," and an April 2025 Justice Department memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi. It gained new fuel from an August 13 Department of Health and Human Services report, "Wolves in White Coats," which found hospitals had billed nearly $120 million in insurance claims since 2019 for pediatric gender-transition procedures, including more than 5,500 surgeries and 8,500 courses of hormones or puberty blockers, according to newyorkfamilies. The report flagged roughly $50 million in puberty-blocker claims filed under a diagnostic code for an unspecified endocrine disorder and $11 million billed for teenagers ages 13 to 17 coded with "precocious puberty," a diagnosis that ordinarily applies well before that age. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Vice President JD Vance referred the flagged providers to the Justice Department and the HHS Inspector General. The report itself does not establish that every questioned claim was fraudulent, and newyorkfamilies noted providers are entitled to due process.

The Other Side of the Argument

Not everyone views the settlement as a win for children. David Kilmnick, president of the Hauppauge-based NY LGBT Network, told Newsday the government is "interfering in a way that is abusive, and it's cruel, not based in science." He argued the Justice Department is "weaponizing" itself "to target transgender young people and intimidate healthcare institutions into abandoning them," and said the campaign is "about using transgender people as political targets," not child protection.

The dispute is not confined to federal court. New York Attorney General Letitia James has pressed NYU Langone to resume providing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones after that hospital paused its program, according to newyorkfamilies. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced a $15 million taxpayer-funded initiative expanding what the city calls gender-affirming care, including direct funding for providers treating minors. New York's Medicaid program still covers hormone therapy and certain surgeries for gender dysphoria.

That leaves an open contradiction in the state: one hospital system is walking away from pediatric gender treatments under federal pressure, while state and city officials are moving public money in the opposite direction.