TN Attorney General Defends Transgender Clinic Investigation, Reveals Video That Prompted It

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The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –

Tennessee Attorney General (AG) Jonathan Skrmetti has defended his investigation of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Clinic for Transgender Health, saying it’s a fraud investigation meant to protect taxpayer dollars.

Last year, Skrmetti opened an investigation into the transgender clinic and at this time three separate civil investigative demands have been made, ordering the clinic to turn over its records.

The majority left-leaning opinion on this investigation remains that it is unwarranted.

One liberal commentator even said the investigation is simply another instance of Republicans using “every tool they’ve got to try to make life miserable for trans[gender] people and their families.”

However, the attorney general maintains that his investigation is not about politics.

“I understand the optics,” stated Skrmetti. “It was very easy, when people said there should be an investigation of Vanderbilt, to say that we’re going to enforce the state laws, because we were already aware of the potential billing issues.”

In an interview with NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams, Skrmetti revealed what prompted the fraud investigation. 

In a 2019 video, Dr. Shayne Sebold Taylor, Founder of Vanderbilt’s transgender clinic, clicks through a slideshow presentation on “documentation challenges” and openly discusses how she manipulates service billing codes in situations where insurance companies will not cover “gender-affirming” treatment.

“For the patient who gets a big bill because their insurance doesn’t cover any transgender related codes,” Taylor says, “I usually write endocrine disorder not otherwise specified, to allow me to order the labs that I want.”

Skrmetti says that the AG’s Office would have conducted this same type of investigation if the doctor involved was a dermatologist, or any other kind of doctor. 

“We do dozens of investigations a year regarding billing fraud,” he said. “There’s no political exception to the fraud laws.”

With the AG’s Office making official demands for patient and billing records for their investigation, some Tennessee parents of transgender children are concerned that the records might also be used to prosecute them as parents for allowing their children to undergo “gender-affirming” treatment. 

According to Skrmetti, “There’s no possible way they [the records] could be used for that purpose.” 

Williams also asked the AG what business the state government has, getting involved in personal healthcare matters.

“If the issue is that way too many people are getting the [gender-affirming] treatments, than need them, and that some people are going to be harmed by that in the long-run, and that on-balance it’s hurting people in the state more than it’s helping them,” answered Skrmetti, “then it’s within the police powers of the state legislature to make that determination.”

He went on to reiterate that the government is allowed to set limitations on what is reimbursed by the government, and that private companies are allowed to set limitations on what is reimbursed by private companies.

“If a doctor […] uses a code that is not the most accurate code for the explicit purpose of avoiding those limitations, they are trying to get money that they are not owed.”

Court records show that the AG’s Office has obtained the medical records of 106 relevant patients, all of them covered by state insurance plans. 

About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.