Planned Parenthood may be defrauding government to fund non-essential cross-sex hormones, research company alleges 

A medical nonprofit is asking the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate Planned Parenthood for alleged medical fraud in a “nationwide miscoding scheme related to the cross-sex hormones they prescribe,” according to a letter sent Tuesday.

Do No Harm partnered with a private data broker to conduct its own investigation, comparing medical claims and prescription claims related to sex hormones and tied to Planned Parenthood affiliates, according to the letter.

“Our investigation suggests Planned Parenthood and its regional affiliates may be perpetrating a nationwide miscoding scheme to conceal services for sex-rejecting procedures and to facilitate improper insurance reimbursements for cross-sex hormones,” Do No Harm Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kurt Miceli said in a statement.

In its research, Do No Harm identified approximately 5,700 patients under age 23 who received 11,000 to 12,000 “gender-related prescriptions from Planned Parenthood affiliates between 2015 and 2025,” according to a press release. Of those patients, approximately 800 received 1,100 to 1,200 hormone prescriptions under misreported diagnosis codes, despite likely qualifying under codes for gender dysphoria.

All health care fields must report proper medical codes for the diagnoses and prescriptions given to patients. Additionally, health care providers may receive reimbursement for “medically necessary” treatments from government health insurance programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE, Do No Harm explains.

But “sex-rejecting procedures,” such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, do not qualify as medically necessary, and providers know this, the organization says.

“Because providers know that treatments are reimbursed only when medically necessary, some providers who seek reimbursement for sex-rejecting procedures may deliberately use incorrect diagnosis codes in patient records and on billing claims to ‘disguis[e] treatment for gender-related mental disorders as another, physical illness’ for which both public and private insurers would be more likely to reimburse a claim,” the letter states.

If true, the abortion giant is defrauding the federal government of medical funds by intentionally misreporting nonessential cross-sex hormones under codes for “medically necessary” conditions, Do No Harm argues.

“The machinery behind this potential fraud reflects an extreme ideology, intent on thwarting accurate review of reimbursement claims submitted for sex-rejecting procedures,” the letter continues.

In addition to abortion, Planned Parenthood is a leading prescriber of cross-sex hormones for minors, drawing further criticism from the pro-life community, which has fought to defund it.

Do No Harm previously conducted a study into the apparent fraudulent misreporting of medical codes across numerous health care companies, as Heartlander News reported. So-called treatments for gender dysphoria cost thousands to millions of dollars, and the total spent annually on sex-reassignment surgery and cross-sex hormones is estimated at nearly $4 billion, according to Do No Harm.

“Sex-rejecting procedures are medical interventions undertaken to alter an individual’s sex-based physical characteristics in a manner inconsistent with biological sex,” the letter states. “As you are aware, these procedures involve significant, often irreversible, risks and are supported by low- to very-low-quality evidence – especially in children.”

Additionally, Do No Harm alleges that Planned Parenthood advises patients to misreport their hormone prescriptions to “meet the needs of most insurance companies,” which the organization says is a way to obtain insurance coverage.

The group is asking HHS to investigate Planned Parenthood and review nonpublic data to determine whether the organization is causing the “government to pay for medically unnecessary procedures that it otherwise might not reimburse.”

“Given our findings and Planned Parenthood affiliates’ history of publicly declaring their use of seemingly spurious codes, it appears the organization may be practicing what it preaches,” Miceli said. “HHS has the authority and resources to launch a formal investigation into this potentially fraudulent scheme, and we encourage them to do so immediately.”