Planned Parenthood miscoding claim prompts watchdog’s call for federal inquiry

Do No Harm — a nonprofit that says it works to keep identity politics out of medical education — asked the Health and Human Services inspector general to investigate Planned Parenthood over alleged miscoding tied to youth cross‑sex hormone prescriptions.

The group, which also campaigns against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives it argues inject gender ideology into clinical practice, says in a Sept. 22 letter that Planned Parenthood and its affiliates may be coding visits in ways that make youth hormone prescriptions appear routine. According to the letter, such coding could obscure what the group calls “sex‑rejecting” services and allow private and public insurers to cover treatments that might otherwise be excluded.

Do No Harm further cites what it describes as “significant, often irreversible” risks associated with these treatments and says available evidence on their safety or effectiveness for addressing gender dysphoria is “low to very low quality.” The letter also notes the procedures’ “lucrative” nature, asserting they can create long‑term patients.

Because health insurance providers, including government-sponsored ones such as Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE, reimburse for “medically necessary” treatments only, the group alleges that Planned Parenthood miscodes the procedures in order to get illegally reimbursed.

The letter says some Planned Parenthood affiliates as well as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) have publicly discussed using such strategic coding practices.

According to the letter, a professional data broker Do No Harm hired to examine Planned Parenthood’s coding practices between 2015 and 2025 found “a subset of approximately 800 patients from across the country for whom Planned Parenthood affiliates wrote between 1,100 and 1,200 prescriptions seemingly related to gender dysphoria while potentially failing to use the correct diagnosis codes for the associated office visit.”

Because of the limitations “inherent in a private actor’s attempt to root out another private actor’s wrongdoing without any of the government’s tools,” Do No Harm asked HHS to investigate Planned Parenthood’s coding practices for office visits as well as to “determine whether and to what extent” those office visits result in pharmacies filling prescriptions for cross-sex hormones, which are then submitted to the federal government for reimbursement.

Two large U.S. health systems, New York University Langone Hospitals and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, agreed Sept. 18 to end pediatric gender-affirming medical interventions for minors and pay financial penalties to resolve Justice Department investigations. NYU Langone will pay $8.5 million and UPMC will pay $950,000.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January ending federal support for gender transition-related care for minors and, in a March joint address to Congress, called for federal legislation “permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children.”

These developments come just a month after HHS’ August report, “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine.’”

The report outlines HHS’ findings and recommendations about the transgender medicine industry and refers to the DOJ and the HHS inspector general’s office clinics and hospitals identified in the report for investigation for possible violations of federal law.

Planned Parenthood did not respond to a request for comment.