Commentary

Trump Administration Re-Opens Investigation into Cleveland Clinic’s Racially Discriminatory Patient Programming

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • January 16, 2026
  • Cleveland Clinic

SALT LAKE CITY, UT; January 16, 2026 – The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS-OCR) has re-opened a civil rights investigation into the Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic after a complaint was filed by Do No Harm and its legal counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL). The complaint was originally filed in August 2024; and while HHS-OCR initially opened an investigation into the Clinic, the matter was closed by the Biden Administration just days before President Trump took office.

Recently, the Trump Administration granted Do No Harm’s request for reconsideration and will re-open its investigation into the alleged discrimination at Cleveland Clinic.

Do No Harm’s complaint focuses on two specific examples of race discrimination at Cleveland Clinic: the Minority Stroke Program and the Minority Men’s Health Center. Both programs were specifically purposed for “preventing and treating [health conditions] in racial and ethnic minorities” through education, prevention, treatment, and other assistance and resources for addressing stroke and diabetes (and other stroke risk factors) as well as men’s health conditions and mental health issues.

Quotes:

“The Department of Health and Human Services is correct to revisit our complaint against Cleveland Clinic’s discriminatory programs and we welcome their efforts,” said Do No Harm Chairman Stanley Goldfarb, MD. “Injecting racial discrimination into treatment practices is unlawful, irresponsible, and leads to misunderstanding of disease and disease risk. Left unchecked, programs like the ones subject to our civil rights complaint erode public trust in medicine and will lead to worse health outcomes for all Americans.”

“Rather than treat all patients equally and provide care based on individual treatment needs, Cleveland Clinic unlawfully decided to allocate care and resources to certain patients because of their race,” said WILL Associate Counsel Nathalie Burmeister. “Now, there will be consequences. WILL is proud to work with Do No Harm in bringing true equality to the health care space.”

Additional Background:

Race-based health equity initiatives, like Cleveland Clinic’s programs, aim to filter and view health outcomes through a racial lens, assuming that one’s race says all the doctor needs to know about who needs medical care the most. However, beyond race, any number of demographic filters could be applied concerning almost any characteristic to compare and address health outcomes—to name a few, height, eye color, birth order, handedness, entertainment preferences, where one lives, etc. The availability of any particular demographic does not make it an appropriate, relevant, comprehensive, or lawful standard for evaluating and addressing health outcomes.

Cleveland Clinic’s race-based Minority Stroke and Minority Men’s Health Center programs ultimately seek to balance the scales of mortality and morbidity based on nothing more than bare reliance on a patient’s skin pigmentation. This interest in race for race’s sake is not only immoral, but also illegal.

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Do No Harm, established in April 2022, has rapidly gained recognition and made significant strides in its mission to safeguard healthcare from ideological threats. It has over 50,000 members, including doctors, nurses, physicians, and concerned citizens across all 50 states and 14 countries.