EPIC Urges CMS to Drop Invasive Rulemaking that Effectively Bans Gender Affirming Care for Minors in Hospitals

Today EPIC submitted comments calling on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to withdraw its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to prohibit Medicare and Medicaid funding for any hospital that provides gender affirming care to minors. This proposed rule would effectively ban minors’ gender affirming care because most hospitals cannot effectively operate without participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. EPIC explained that the NPRM should not go forward because: (1) CMS failed to provide any evidence or point to any legal authority to justify such a sweeping prohibition on a type of health care, (2) it attempts to control hospitals’ administration of services in violation of the Social Security Act, and (3) it blatantly violates the medical privacy of patients nationwide. EPIC routinely advocates to protect the medical privacy of transgender and gender nonconforming people and pushes to protect sensitive health information from unauthorized access.