Insurance companies have variable policies for covering gender-affirming breast/chest “top” surgery in transgender patients, according to a special topic paper in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

“Our survey study finds marked variation in policy criteria for top surgery between insurers,” comments lead author Yvonne Marsha Rasko, MD, of University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. “These criteria often deviate from established global recommendations, and some insurers categorically deny access to gender-affirming top surgery.”