Kids Can’t Wait: Why the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act Matters

Every child deserves timely access to lifesaving medical care — no matter their zip code, diagnosis, or the complexity of their condition.

Yet for millions of children covered by Medicaid, accessing the specialized care they need across state lines can be painfully slow, confusing, and in some cases, impossible.

The Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act would change that.

As children’s hospitals advocate for stronger, smarter Medicaid policies, Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care stands out as one of the most important bipartisan solutions to a longstanding problem: bureaucratic barriers that delay children with medically complexities from getting specialized out‑of‑state care.

Delaying critical care

Children must frequently travel to another state to access specialized pediatric services unavailable close to home. This is especially true for:

• Children with cancer or other rare diseases
• Children with complex medical needs
• Children requiring highly specialized surgery or lifesaving treatments

Despite the urgency, families often face months‑long delays because out-of-state providers must undergo duplicative Medicaid screenings and enrollment, even if they're already fully vetted and enrolled in their home state's Medicaid program.

These delays come at a high cost.

Consider children like Lily who was born with her esophagus in two separate segments and connected abnormally to the windpipe.

Correcting the condition required a complex procedure only available at two places in the country, one being Boston Children’s Hospital. Her family was prepared to travel immediately, but Lily’s surgery was rescheduled three times over seven months due to delays in enrolling the necessary providers at Boston Children’s in her home state’s Medicaid program.

Those barriers left Lily with a floppy airway, weakened immune system, and routine breathing difficulties.

Speeding up health care

The Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act ensures out-of-state providers can deliver timely care to kids who need it, when they need it.

The bill creates a new pathway for qualifying pediatric providers to enroll in multiple state Medicaid programs more easily. Under the legislation:

• Providers already in good standing in their home state’s Medicaid program can enroll in other states more efficiently.
• The reform focuses solely on screening and enrollment — not on care authorization or payment — leaving full authority to state Medicaid agencies.
• States can reduce administrative burdens, limit redundant paperwork, and cut program costs.

In short, the bill modernizes an outdated process that restricts access to urgently needed care.

Impacting children’s hospitals

Children’s hospitals are often regional and national hubs for highly specialized pediatric care.

And delays created by Medicaid enrollment disrupt care coordination, treatment timelines, and health outcomes. By simplifying enrollment processes, children’s hospitals can:

• Provide critical care more quickly
• Reduce administrative waste
• Ensure scarce pediatric specialty resources reach the children who need them
• Strengthen interstate clinical collaboration

The Children’s Hospital Association has consistently affirmed the importance of this legislation since it was originally introduced in 2018.

Since then, the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act has passed the House and has earned strong bipartisan support across multiple sessions of Congress. Legislators including Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Reps. Lori Trahan (D-MA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), have repeatedly championed the bill, highlighting its vital role in eliminating unnecessary red tape that stands between children and lifesaving care.

Acting now

The impact of this bill is both widespread and urgent.

More than 37 million children rely on Medicaid — and nearly half of all children with special health care needs depend on it for specialist access. Children’s health shouldn’t hinge on administrative complexities or state-by-state inconsistencies.

Passing the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act improves access to better-coordinated, more equitable, and faster specialized care for every child who needs it.