CM Cabán on gender-affirming care for youth at H&H

Thank you.

I'd like to start with a couple of questions about gender affirming care.

I asked this question earlier, but it's probably more appropriate for you all.

Obviously, we're seeing the federal assault on gender affirming care continue.

escalated.

I mean, now we're seeing these private hospitals get subpoenas.

So is there a plan for increasing access to gender affirming care within H&H specifically for younger children?

Like there's so, I was mentioning, but there are so few places that provide care for children under the age of 13.

So could you speak on that a little bit?

Sure.

Well, with you, we remain committed to this population and we are not going to, you know, stop taking care of them.

We believe that this is a health issue that is best dealt with by the person, by their family, and definitely not by the federal government.

We have already accommodated families who were in other programs that ended and will continue to do so.

We don't maintain any volume cap, so we will care for as many children as need to be cared for.

I think one thing that has come up is that, you know, we've asked about this before, obviously, because this has been a long-term attack on that particular community.

And we haven't necessarily seen an addition of patients coming to H&H.

But what I will say is that I am hearing from more parents that they're...

You know, having a hard time figuring out where to take their children.

And so I'm wondering also if there are dedicated referral pathways, care coordinators, expedited appointments.

at H&H available for patients whose treatment has been interrupted.

And I want to emphasize the care coordinator piece because I think that's what parents have at least indicated would be the most helpful because, you know, different stage, different age and different development stages require different kinds of care and not every

doctor in every even H&H facility has the ability to provide that care.

Yeah, we certainly do try to have people come to a place where we have specialized physicians, because as you say,

not all physicians, even all good physicians, are culturally competent to deal with the issues of transgender children.

I will go back and see more about whether or not we have a sufficient number of care coordinators,

and we'll certainly prioritize that as things get harder and harder, as other providers stop doing this work.

We want to still stay firm and keep providing it to the children.

My last question on this piece is NYU Langone has received a federal subpoena.

Mount Sinai has, except they're lying about it.

Has the administration received?

We have not.

Okay.

And thank you.