A federal judge threw out a subpoena for the medical records of minor patients who received gender-affirming care at Children’s Hospital Colorado, extending the Department of Justice’s losing streak.
U.S. District Judge Cyrus Chung wrote in a Monday night order that Congress gave the Justice Department and other agencies the power to issue subpoenas to investigate law-breaking, but no federal law prohibits gender-affirming care to minors.
The DOJ has two weeks to file any objections to the order, but didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether it would.
Children’s Hospital Colorado and Denver Health both paused gender-affirming hormone therapy for minors in late December, following a declaration from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that threatened to cut hospitals providing that care off from Medicare and Medicaid entirely.
Colorado has joined 18 other states suing to throw out the declaration.
HHS officials announced last week that they would refer Children’s Hospital Colorado and Seattle Children’s Hospital to the department’s Office of the Inspector General. Posts on social media didn’t specify what the office would investigate, though it typically looks into fraudulent Medicare billing and states’ failures to oversee their Medicaid programs.
The Department of Justice’s subpoena requested:
Complete personnel files for Children’s Hospital Colorado employees Records related to billing and coding for gender-affirming care Contracts and other communications with pharmaceutical companies that manufacture puberty-blockers and hormonal treatments Medical records and identifying data for minors who received puberty blockers or hormonal treatments, including their names, addresses and Social Security numbersThe hospital asked the department if it would accept patient records with identifying information stripped out, but the department refused, according to Chung’s order.
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While the Justice Department said it was investigating “misbranded” drugs or illegal off-label promotion of medications, patients’ medical records aren’t relevant to questions about drug companies’ behavior, Chung wrote. Doctors can prescribe drugs for conditions they weren’t approved for — such as using blood pressure drugs to prevent migraines — but manufacturers can’t advertise their drugs for those conditions or encourage doctors to use them that way.
The Justice Department didn’t identify any evidence of drug companies improperly promoting drugs, and the government’s own statements show the true goal was to end gender-affirming care, Chung wrote.
“Evidence of abuse of the court’s process abounds,” he wrote in the order.
Children’s Hospital Colorado said in a short statement that the decision would protect patients’ personal information.
“Children’s Colorado takes our obligation to protect the privacy of our patients and team members seriously,” the statement said.
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