About Us

What we mean by "safety net" hospital

Boston Children's Hospital provides care to patient families who cannot pay for the care they receive; additionally, the hospital also subsidizes care for Medicaid patients.

• The hospital is the largest provider of medical care to low-income children in the state.
• Approximately 30 percent of our patients are uninsured or have coverage through public insurance.
• 90% of the sickest children in the Commonwealth receive services at the hospital, and many of those services are only available at Children's.

Children's is also the community hospital for the city of Boston:

• The hospital is the largest provider (inpatient and outpatient) for Boston children.
• More than half of all Boston children needing to be hospitalized come to Children's.

The hospital also offers vital subsidized services that are unavailable or limited elsewhere in the community. These services include primary care within the hospital and at the Martha Eliot Health Center in Jamaica Plain, mental health services, adolescent medicine, dental care, and child protection services.

Improving access to care

Children's has been a longstanding leader in improving access to health insurance for children and families through its advocacy efforts, which have helped drive the effort to expand children's coverage on a number of fronts, statewide, regionally and nationally. The hospital has provided critical resources and support to efforts to ensure that policy gains are translated into actual coverage, both by enrolling uninsured children on-site and through community partnerships.

To improve access to health care for urban children and families across the city, the hospital also supports providers in community health centers in their efforts to provide important primary care and specialty care services to their patients and families.