Boston Children's Hospital focuses on pediatric workforce education, public health and medical research policy issues impacting children. In the 119th Congress, we have advocated for funding through the appropriations process for the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education program (CHGME).
Boston Children's Hospital advocates for medical research funding generally (eg NIH) and to assure an emphasis on pediatric research issues and concerns. In the current Congress, we have sought increases in the overall NIH appropriation level, and worked to assure better coordination across NIH institutes for pediatric initiatives. We opposed early proposals to dramatically reduce F&A rates and have supported the JAG proposal to reform the calculation of indirect rates. We have expressed concern about mid-cycle grant terminations. Our informatics research program has provided information on disease surveillance/pandemic preparedness, health IT and interoperability concerns to Congressional leaders.
Boston Childrens has advocated for the protection and preservation of the Medicaid system, with particular emphasis on maintaining benefits most impactful to children such as EPSDT. We have also supported policies to facilitate the ability of children on Medicaid or CHIP to receive care from out-of-state providers. This includes H.R. 1509 and S. 752, the Accelerating Kids Access to Care Act as well as related policies possible under current authorities. In the current Congress, we raised concerns about HR1's impact on children and pediatric providers.