The Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) submitted a statement for the record to the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee on June 9, urging Congress to ensure health care transparency policies work for children and families and reflect the unique structure of pediatric care.
CHA's statement emphasized that transparency efforts should provide clear, accurate, and actionable cost information, highlighting the importance of patient-specific estimator tools over raw pricing data.
The statement also raised concerns about proposals that would impose significant administrative and reporting burden — such as monthly updates and rigid compliance requirements — without meaningful benefit to families.
CHA further noted that pediatric services are often highly specialized and difficult to standardize within adult-focused frameworks and underscored the importance of preserving resources for patient care.
CHA urged policymakers to consider the broader pressures facing children’s hospitals, including Medicaid reliance and workforce challenges, and to protect support for hospital outpatient departments that deliver specialized pediatric services and expand access for children with complex needs.
