KIDS Act

Who is affected and how:

• Children and adolescents: Minors (people under 18) will generally not be asked about gender identity or sexual orientation on intake forms, preserving privacy in routine registration contexts but possibly limiting documented identity data unless clinically needed.

• Health care providers and clinics: Must review and revise intake/registration procedures, update electronic health records and forms, and train staff to collect these data only when medically necessary. Administrative burden includes policy updates and possible revisions to consent/recordkeeping practices.

• Health care workforce and administrative staff: Intake personnel, front‑desk staff, and clinicians must be trained on what constitutes medical necessity and permissible data collection under clinical guidelines.

• Public-health researchers and program planners: Routine sources of demographic and identity data on minors may shrink, complicating surveillance, needs assessments, and program evaluation unless data collection fits the medical-necessity exception or alternative data sources are used.

• Families and caregivers: May see increased privacy protections on standard forms; in clinical situations where gender identity or sexual orientation is relevant to care, clinicians can still ask and document the information.

• Federal agency (HHS): Must build and operate a reporting mechanism; HHS will need to issue guidance clarifying what qualifies as medical necessity and how the reporting system operates.

Potential tradeoffs and risks:

• Clinical risk if providers misinterpret the rule and fail to collect information that is medically relevant for care.
• Reduced availability of nonclinical data about minors' identities for public-health planning and equity monitoring.
• Administrative costs for covered entities to comply and for HHS to implement the reporting function. The statute does not specify penalties or funding to implement changes, leaving many operational details to the implementing agency.