While freestanding pediatric hospitals make up roughly 5% of total hospitals, they face unique challenges as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) comes into effect.

All told, pediatric hospitals are in a similar situation to their adult peers in that they must plan across the near- and long-term using potentially divergent strategies. However, pediatric facilities face unique challenges due to their greater dependency on public payers and faster pace of outpatient shift.

This briefing captures Advisory Board’s analysis of the financial impact on pediatric hospitals as well as insights gleaned from an inaugural roundtable on pediatric hospitals, spearheaded by Optum Advisory.

This report was developed using data from Syntellis Market Insights, which is sourced directly from business systems at more than 1,300 hospitals. Unless specifically noted, all data in this report comes from Syntellis Market Insights.

We used a rolling 12-month year to include the most recent available data ending in September 2025. For provider segments, we used existing Syntellis Market Insights presets and designations for provider type. The sample sizes for various hospital populations and parameters ranged from 600 to 21.