On August 19, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) informed insurers participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits or Postal Service Health Benefits programs that gender-affirming care would no longer be covered for federal workers starting in 2026. This coverage decision is the Trump Administration’s latest action stemming from Executive Order 14187 which aims to prevent certain treatments, such as gender-affirming hormone therapy, surgeries, and puberty blockers for those under the age of 19. As previously discussed, the Administration has also signaled its intent to use various law enforcement tools against gender-affirming care, including Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to police false or unsupported claims by medical professionals about gender-affirming treatments.
As discussed below, several recent events suggest that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is acting upon the presidential directive in Executive Order 14187 to “prioritize investigations and take appropriate action” in connection with cases of alleged fraud involving gender-affirming care including the potential use of the False Claims Act (FCA), the government’s primary civil enforcement tool used to combat healthcare fraud.
In response to Executive Order 14187, the Attorney General issued a memo directing the Civil Division’s Fraud Section to pursue FCA investigations of false claims submitted to federal health care programs for “any...
As a healthcare worker in Pennsylvania, I’m writing to urge our state senators to reject the False Claims Act legislation. While this bill is being advertised as a way to reduce fraud in our healt...