SeattleTimes.nwsource.com – Ralph Thomas – Seattle Times Olympia bureau
Olympia – Medicaid officials plan to rewrite regulations to make it clear the state will no longer cover sex-change operations.
But before the new regulations are in place, the state will likely have to pay for more surgeries.
In a pair of rulings issued last month, a state appeals board ordered Medicaid to pay for two people to travel out of state to undergo sex-change operations. The state estimates the procedures, also known as sex-reassignment surgery, will cost $50,000 to $60,000 each.