Medical Providers Nationwide Will Be Required to Ask Medicare Patients their Race, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity

Starting in 2025, all medical providers who are working with a patient to help them apply for Medicare coverage will be required to ask about their race, sexual orientation, and gender identity — or risk losing their ability to work with Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) or its numerous affiliates.

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“I get notified yesterday by my compliance officer that as an insurance broker, anytime we do an application for a Medicare Advantage plan or a Part D plan, we are required to now ask the gender of the client and their sexual orientation,” said Brad Dyer, owner of a podiatry practice in Rumford, speaking to The Maine Wire.

The new applications for medicare coverage ask the sex of the patient at the top of the application, where it only provides “male” and “female” as options, but later on, it asks about gender identity, and provides an option for non-binary, as well as a write-in section for the patient to list any gender identity they prefer.

The disparity between the sex and gender identity questions suggests that, while CMS is trying to submit to radical gender ideology, it cannot escape the reality of biological sex.

Providers assisting with the forms will also be required to ask whether patients are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or some other sexual orientation.

When asking about race, the CMS form provides numerous specific options for Asian and Pacific Islander ethnicities, but, interestingly, makes no distinction between European or African races, providing only “white” or “black” as options.

Patients will not be required to answer the new questions, but medical providers will be required to ask them or risk losing their contracts with CMS.

Dyer told The Maine Wire that if he refuses to ask the new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) questions, he will likely lose his business, because CMS could cancel his contracts, which would leave him unable to receive payments from CMS affiliated health plans.

“I refuse to ask those questions, and by refusing, technically, they can cancel my contracts,” said Dyer.

CMS claims that the information requested in the new questions will not in any way influence coverage or eligibility.

In a CMS memo on the changes provided to The Maine Wire, the organization admitted that its primary goal in including the new questions is to further its DEI inspired “health equity” initiative.

“CMS is committed to addressing health inequities and the underlying disparities within the health care system. To reduce gaps, we must begin with accurate data collection. We believe collecting this data will meaningfully advance equity mandates by resulting in a more granular and better understanding of the diversity of the Medicare population,” said the CMS memo. “The addition of these questions will enable individuals to complete an enrollment form accurately in a way that better reflects and affirms their identity.”

That statement suggests that, despite claiming that the new information will not influence coverage, CMS does plan to use the information to alter how it operates.

The new memo indicates a continuing shift away from providing accurate medical assistance and towards affirming new and emerging fringe ideas about human sexuality.