New York City-based NYU Langone Health and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will stop providing gender-affirming care to minors and pay a combined $9.45 million under agreements with the Justice Department, the department announced Sept. 18.
NYU Langone will pay $8.5 million and UPMC will pay $950,000, according to the Justice Department.
The agreements require both health systems to stop prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and performing surgical procedures for patients younger than 18.
The Justice Department said the deals resolve allegations that the systems fraudulently billed federal programs and private insurers for the care, including by submitting false diagnosis codes, in violation of the False Claims Act and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
NYU Langone said it settled without admitting fault.
“NYU Langone has not entered into this settlement because of any wrongdoing and has affirmatively denied any wrongdoing or liability in the agreement,” the system said in a Sept. 21 statement to Becker’s. It said the resolution is “in the best interests of our patients and their families” and spares them, its staff and the institution from prolonged litigation.
For NYU Langone, the settlement is a reversal — and, the system said, a way to protect patient privacy. The system had previously been shielded from the department’s records demand. In May, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas issued a grand jury subpoena seeking records on patients younger than 18 treated from 2020 to 2026. In July, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla issued a preliminary injunction blocking the department’s access to the files.
NYU Langone said the agreement removes “the threat that NYU Langone would have to provide the confidential information previously demanded” about those patients. The system said the resolution has no effect on its pediatric mental health programs or on care for patients 18 and older, which will continue.
The two agreements follow settlements the DOJ reached with other large systems this year, including Mount Sinai Health System in New York, Cleveland Clinic, Connecticut Children’s in Hartford, Conn., and Houston-based Texas Children’s Hospital. Texas Children’s agreed in May to pay more than $10 million and fund what officials called the nation’s first detransition clinic.
The settlements stem from a 2025 executive order directing the department to prioritize investigations into pediatric gender-transition care. The legal landscape remains unsettled, as recent federal court decisions have limited enforcement in some states.
UPMC did not immediately respond to Becker’s request for comment.
