(LifeSiteNews) — Matt Walsh’s producer has gone undercover to show how a “trans healthcare” provider fraudulently approved a mutilating “transgender” surgery in what Walsh has shown is a larger pattern among such providers.
On Wednesday, Walsh shared videos and messages showing that Plume Clinic took 22 minutes to approve an insurance-covered testicle removal for his producer Gregg Re, who posed as a man identifying as a female, despite the fact that Re emphasized to the “care coordinator” that he was not currently gender “dysphoric,” a requirement for insurance companies to pay for such surgery.
Walsh explained that Plume, the “largest healthcare provider to the trans and nonbinary community,” scheduled Walsh for a video interview under a fake legal name after he indicated in his intake form that he had experienced gender dysphoria in the past, and never for six months for more.
“Under the current version of the DSM-5, that means he doesn’t have gender dysphoria,” Walsh noted.
9/ In his intake form with Plume, Gregg provided a fake legal name. He said he had dysphoria in the past. But he stated he had never experienced it for six months or more. Under the current version of the DSM-5, that means he doesn’t have gender dysphoria. pic.twitter.com/MWoveVpQ2T
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 7, 2023
Asked for some of the history of his “gender dysphoria,” Gregg told the coordinator he once wrote an essay in school about how his biological sex didn’t match how he “felt,” which he said people thought “was ridiculous.”
11/ Nevertheless, Plume’s nurse practitioner said she wanted to write the most “solid” letter possible to justify surgery. Gregg tells her that he once wrote an essay in school about being a woman, which everyone thought was ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/iY7Ec3Q1wd
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 7, 2023
Three days later, Plume sent a letter to Gregg, addressing him by his supposed female identity, “Chelsea Bussey,” saying “she reports significant, ongoing gender dysphoria,” and that “she has met WPATH criteria for gender dysphoria and is an appropriate candidate for Orchiectomy.”
13/ Three days later, Plume sent this letter to “Chelsea Bussey” – who does not exist — saying he was experiencing “significant, ongoing gender dysphoria.” The letter strongly recommended “Chelsea” for testicle removal. pic.twitter.com/WzIMsjygS6
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 7, 2023
Later, Gregg texted the coordinator clarifying, “I don’t feel dysphoria [right now] but it’s ok to keep it in the letter, right?”
15/ Later, Plume’s nurse practitioner confirmed that “in order for the surgery to be paid for,” the dysphoria diagnosis would need to remain. At the same time, the nurse appeared confused as to why “Chelsea Bussey” had requested testicle removal in the first place. pic.twitter.com/AocC3z0FQ2
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 7, 2023
The coordinator’s response said he was “diagnosed with” gender dysphoria and that “in order for the surgery to be paid for a GCS, it will need to be related to your gender dysphoria.”
To show that false “diagnoses” of “gender dysphoria” are not unique to Plume but are in fact the “industry standard,” Walsh shared documentation including a video of a licensed clinical social worker explaining in a training video how she writes the letters required for patients to undergo “transgender” surgeries.
“I’m not gonna be a person that’s gonna stop them from accessing care. I’m not there to determine if they’re ‘trans enough.’ I’m gonna write them this letter,” Ari Groner explained.
Walsh also shared a screenshot from the website for the “popular” trans telehealth service Folx showing that also appear to have a loose approach to diagnosing gender dysphoria. The Folx site said, for example, that a person “who identifies as nonbinary and does not have a lot of ‘dysphoria’” “might still need a gender dysphoria diagnostic code attached in order for insurance to cover the surgery.”
5/ Whatever insurance companies might think of that, it’s the industry standard. The popular trans telehealth service @folxhealth, for example, instructs patients that even if they don’t “fit” the definition of gender dysphoria, the diagnosis is “needed” so that insurers pay out. pic.twitter.com/8hVoLXzAkH
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 7, 2023
Walsh shared on Thursday that the Attorney General’s office in Tennessee, from which the organizations operate, have “confirmed that they will look into this.”
State attorneys general and legislators across the U.S. have since condemned Gregg’s findings as “healthcare fraud.”
One representative and chair of the House Healthcare and Financial Services Committee called the findings “utterly disgusting,” The Daily Wire reported.
“Medical insurance fraud in any form is a very serious crime. But even more troubling are reports of physicians committing such illegal acts in blatant disregard for the law and the long-term health of many vulnerable patients,” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes told The Daily Wire. “In Utah, we prioritize investigating and prosecuting these types of unethical and fraudulent cases.”
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti responded to the evidence stating, “There is no political exception to health care fraud. If any health care providers are cutting corners at the expense of patients and state funds, whether it’s in pursuit of profit or ideology, we want to know about it.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told The Daily Wire, “It is incomprehensible that some health care providers are potentially breaking the law to mislead vulnerable patients and fast-track irreversible procedures. This isn’t health care — it’s forcing an ideological agenda.”