HHS

Dec. 30 (UPI) — U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials have frozen federal child care funding to Minnesota amid accusations of fraud in that state and others.

HHS officials announced the action on Tuesday and credited a viral video that suggests rampant fraud is occurring at Minnesota child care centers that provide daycare services for few, if any, children.

“You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade,” said Jim O’Neill, HHS deputy secretary, in a social media post on Tuesday.

In response to the “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country,” O’Neill said HHS officials have taken three actions.

One is to require justification and a receipt or photo evidence before sending federal Administration for Children and Family funds to a state.

HHS also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address, and identified individuals shown in a viral social media video at Minnesota daycare centers that appeared to have no children.

“I have demanded from [Minnesota] Gov. Tim Walz a comprehensive audit of these centers,” O’Neill said. “This includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.”

Conservative activist Nick Shirley recorded and posted the viral video, which, along with FBI evidence, spurred U.S. Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem on Monday to launch what she called a “massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud,” according to CBS News.

Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown told CBS News the department questions “some of the methods used in the video” but takes the fraud concerns raised in Shirley’s video “very seriously.”

State officials visited some of the daycare centers featured in the video and said two of them were closed earlier this year, but officials at one said they intend to resume operations.

CBS News looked at the records for several of the daycares cited and said all but two have active licenses to operate in Minnesota.

State records show all of the active locations had been visited by state regulators over the past six months, with no evidence of fraud found, but citations were issued for staff training, safety, equipment, and cleanliness violations.

The alleged daycare fraud comes amid federal investigations of 14 Medicaid-funded programs in Minnesota, but none involved child care.

Among them is an investigation into the Feeding Our Future program that was intended to feed at-risk children during the COVID-19 pandemic but has triggered dozens of federal fraud convictions and has embroiled Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who helped to promote it.

That alleged fraud cost an estimated $250 million and largely occurred within the Somali community in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which prompted President Donald Trump to halt Temporary Protected Status for Somalians in Minnesota.

Dec. 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulations on Thursday that restrict the ability for transgender minors to access gender-affirming healthcare.

The regulations work to “carry out President Trump’s executive order directing HHS to end the practice of sex-rejecting procedures on children that expose young people to irreversible harm,” a press release said.

The new rules will ban hospitals from “performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs.”

“These actions will ensure that the federal government in no way funds directly gender transition procedures on minors and also does not fund facilities that perform these procedures,” a department official told reporters Thursday.

The department said what it calls “sex-rejecting procedures” on children, including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery, “expose them to irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other department officials will offer details about the moves later Thursday.

Gender-affirming care is a holistic approach to treating gender-dysphoria and is supported by every major medical association as treatment for both adults and children.

It includes a range of therapies, from psychological and behavioral to medical interventions, with surgeries for minors being exceedingly rare.

The medical practice, however, has been a target for conservatives for years amid a larger campaign that civil rights organizations see as a threat to the rights of LGBTQ Americans.

St. Louis pediatrician Dr. Kenneth Haller called HHS’ actions “anti-science” during a Human Rights Campaign press briefing. He pointed out that these efforts still allow the treatments for children with other conditions that affect hormone production.

Haller said that as long as the condition doesn’t change a child’s gender, “these people don’t have a problem with [prescribing hormones]. That same care for kids who are transgender is what they say is wrong. There’s no science behind it.”

HHS said the Food and Drug Administration would send warning letters to manufacturers and sellers of breast binders for minors alleging they are doing illegal marketing, the department official said.

“Illegal marketing of these products for children is alarming, and the FDA will take further enforcement action such as import alerts, seizures, and injunctions if it continues,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a statement.

The Human Rights Campaign said these rules infringe on the rights of families.

“Families deserve the freedom to go to the doctor and get the care that they need and to have agency over the health and wellbeing of their children,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement. “But these proposed actions would put [President] Donald Trump and RFK Jr. in those doctor’s offices, ripping healthcare decisions from the hands of families and putting it in the grips of the anti-LGBTQ+ fringe.”

And Advocates for Trans Equality told UPI in an emailed statement that are a “discriminatory attack” that lacks credible medical or financial basis.

“These sets of rules mark a serious escalation in this administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle healthcare programs and services for trans youth,” Fiadh McKenna, A4TE senior staff attorney, said in the statement.

“Targeting healthcare for trans people is unlawful and discriminatory; no one should be denied healthcare because of who they are.”

The new CMS rules will be finalized after a 60-day comment period on the Federal Register, the department official said.

Trump has issued several executive orders against transgender people. In May, the Pentagon began removing transgender service members from the military. In March, the Department of Veterans Affairs began phasing out medical treatments for gender dysphoria. In February, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports. In January, Trump signed an executive order that restricts gender-affirming care for minors.