Comment on CMS-2026-1916-0001
Anonymous AnonymousOpposeIndividual
Summary: A pediatrician at a large children's hospital opposes the proposed rule, arguing that it will lead to the closure of local pediatric clinics and wards. The commenter expresses concern that this will force families in rural areas to travel long distances for care, leading to overcrowded hospitals and reduced quality of care for local children.
As a pediatrician at a large children's hospital, I see a lot of kids that need to be flown in or driven in ambulances for hours to get to care. Often this is because there are limited resources where they live. These children depend on the care they can receive locally to prevent these serious illnesses or to get timely treatment. The proposed rule change by CMS (CMS-2026-1916-0001; file code CMS-2449-P) will seriously impact the care available to children and more and more pediatric clinics and wards will close making it worse. These are the families, usually in more republican areas, who will not be able to get the care they need. Kids will need to travel over 8 hours to get to care and the large hospitals are getting extremely crowded. This then negatively impacts care for babies and children who live near these hospitals because there will not be enough space or doctors/nurses for all of them.