Legislative Accomplishments
Public and Behavioral Health and Opioids
Senate author and sponsor of Senate Bill 1388, An Act Relative to Recovery Coach Licensure, included in Chapter 285 of the Acts of 2024, An Act Relative to Treatments and Coverage for Substance Use Disorder and Recovery Coach Licensure, which establishes licensure for recovery coaches and mandates insurance coverage for recovery coach services.
Senate author and sponsor of Senate Bill 659, An Act Relative to Removing Barriers to Non-opioid pain Management, included in An Act Relative to Treatments and Coverage for Substance Use Disorder and Recovery Coach Licensure, Chapter 285 of the Acts of 2024, which establishes insurance coverage without prior authorization for non-opioid alternatives for pain management and requires insurers to advise providers of an insurer’s pain management access plans.
Senate author and sponsor of Senate Bill 881, An Act Creating the Massachusetts Healthy Homes Program, included in Section 5 of Chapter 150 of the Acts of 2024, An Act Relative to the Affordable Homes Act, which establishes a program to address the presence of lead paint, poor indoor air quality, and other substandard housing conditions that can lead to developmental delays in children, respiratory disease, accidents, and many other serious but preventable health issues that are disproportionately impacting low-income tenants and families.
Senate author and sponsor of Chapter 118 of the Acts of 2024, An Act to Prevent Abuse and Exploitation, criminalizing “revenge pornography” including deepfake, computer generated sexually explicit images and creating a youth education and diversion program, and expanding the definition of abuse in domestic violence cases to include coercive control.
Secured funding in FY24 state budget for MBTA to install naloxone in 5 Red Line stations.
Senate author and sponsor of Senate Bill 686, An Act Promoting Continuity of Care for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment, filed in 2021, which ensures continued access to MS medications for patients despite changes in insurance coverage, included in Section 2 of Chapter 254 of the Acts of 2022, An Act Relative to Step Therapy and Patient Safety.
Principal author and sponsor of Senate Bill 839, An Act Establishing a Behavioral Health Workforce Center, filed in 2021, which creates a center to gather data and research to advise policy leaders on how to address the crisis in the behavioral health workforce across the Commonwealth. The Center was formed in September 2024, established as part of Chapter 77 of the Acts of 2022, An Act Establishing the Behavioral Health Trust Fund and the Behavioral Health Advisory Commission. The center was formed in September 2024.
Principal author and sponsor of Chapter 133 of the Acts of 2019, An Act Modernizing Tobacco Control, first in the nation legislation banning all flavored e-cigarette/vaping products and all flavored tobacco products in Massachusetts.
Drafter of several sections of Chapter 208 of the Acts of 2018, An Act for Prevention and Access to Appropriate Care and Treatment of Addiction, including Sections 4,5,8,24,31,32,37,50,51,55,71,74,75,76,77,78,81,85,88,91,92,94, 97 and 98, focusing on required insurance coverage for non-opioid alternative pain management treatments, partial fill of opioid prescriptions, insurance coverage for naloxone, induction of medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in emergency departments, and use of MOUD in state and county correctional facilities.
Drafter of several sections of Chapter 52 of Acts of 2016, An Act Relative to Substance Use, Treatment, Education and Prevention, including Sections 4, 7,21,23,28,29,31,53,59 and 69, focusing on provision of non-opioid alternatives, allowing patient use of non-opiate directives (first in nation), permitting partial fill of prescriptions (first in nation, and later incorporated into federal law), establishing prescribing protocols, requiring Department of Public Health to release de-identified data for research, establishing prescriber trend notifications (first in nation), creating statewide Drug Stewardship Program (first in nation), mandating insurance companies to report coverage denials for medical and behavioral health claims to assess parity, creating Pain Management Access Program for physicians, and adding Gabapentin to list of monitored drugs.
Conceived and co-authored legislation creating a Sober Home Certification Program, which was included in Section 37 of the FY15 Budget.
Author of Chapter 55 of Acts of 2015, An Act Requiring Certain Reports for Opiate Overdoses, which commissioned a detailed study, a first of its kind in the nation, requiring the collection of multi-source data to establish the prescribing, treatment, incarceration, and other relevant history of each person suffering a fatal overdose in 2014, and to identify risk indicators to inform future approaches to addiction; the collection of data has expanded and is regularly reported by the Department of Health.
Legislative leader in calling for upgrading the Commonwealth’s Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) and advocating for necessary appropriations, resulting in Massachusetts Prescription Awareness Tool (MassPAT) being released for use October 2016
Drafted budget amendment creating commission to review specialty drug dispensing and patient safety; amendment adopted and included in FY17 budget.
Drafter of several sections of Chapter 284 of Acts of 2014, An Act Relative to the Reduction of Gun Violence, including Sections 9, 12, 13, 31 and 50, focusing on school safety, suicide awareness and prevention training for school personnel and physicians, suicide data collection, and verification of receipt of license application.
Drafter of several sections of Chapter 258 of Acts of 2014, an Act to Increase Opportunities for Long-Term Substance Abuse Recovery, including Sections 4,5,7,9,11,12,14,15,16,17,18,21,23,25,28,35 and 40, focusing on creation of drug formulary of chemically equivalent abuse deterrent opioid medications for substitution for non-abuse deterrent formulations, insurance coverage for abuse deterrent opioid formulations, reporting of overdose death data to MedWatch, authorizing the emergency scheduling of dangerous synthetic substances, and improving insurance denial data collection.
Co-Chair of Mental Health Advisory Committee established by Section 186 of Chapter 139 of Acts of 2012; Committee held ten formal meetings, accepting written and oral testimony, and gathering information, data and documentation from multiple individuals and entities relative to the Commonwealth’s in-patient and out-patient mental health delivery systems; resulted in publication of the Report of Mental Health Advisory Committee, June 30, 2014, which has prompted budgetary and legislative initiatives to address deficiencies in the systems, including emergency department boarding.
Co-Author of Chapter 159 of Acts of 2014, an Act Relative to Pharmacy Practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, legislation regulating the practice of pharmacy compounding in response to the New England Compounding Center meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people and caused serious illness to hundreds.
Co-Author of Chapter 244 of Acts of 2012, An Act Relative to Prescription Drug Diversion, Abuse and Diversion, which established automatic enrollment in the Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) for all physicians and dentists; required prescribers to check a patient’s PMP record before writing an opiate prescription; required pharmacies to submit to State and Local Police any report of lost or stolen controlled substances; prohibited the filling of opiate prescriptions from states outside of New England; directed the Department of Public Health to create an educational pamphlet on addiction risks, and required pharmacists to distribute it with each schedule II or III opiate prescription; required that all written prescriptions be issued on tamper resistant forms meeting federal guidelines for Medicaid written prescriptions; added a number of identified hazardous “Bath Salts” substances to Schedule I; required providers to give notification and educational materials to parents whenever a minor receives emergency treatment for a drug or alcohol overdose; codified the authority of MassHealth to establish a “Lock In” program that monitors for signs of doctor shopping or pharmacy shopping; and, established the Prescribing Best Practices Working Group (later renamed the Joint Policy Working Group) to review and make recommendations on prescription drug abuse.
Drafter of amendments to Chapter 224 of Acts of 2012, An Act Improving the Quality of Health Care and Reducing Costs Through Increased Transparency, Efficiency and Innovation, ensuring that the definition of “emergency medical condition” includes behavioral health and substance abuse emergencies for purposes of parity.
Legislative leader in advocating for modernized public health laboratory, resulting in planned renovation of Hinton Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory.
Bonding
Reviewed, amended and passed through Senate Bonding Committee, Chapter 228 of the Acts of 2018, An Act Relative to Economic Development in the Commonwealth, authorizing $1.15b in funding for public infrastructure improvements and technical and workforce training, and also restricting the use of non-compete agreements.
Reviewed, amended and passed through Senate Bonding Committee, a $3.9 billion Capital Facility Repairs and Improvements for the Commonwealth bill, passed as Chapter 113 of the Acts of 2018, to address the state’s capital needs, including higher education campuses, health and human services facilities, state office buildings, public safety facilities, and courts.
Reviewed, amended and passed through Senate Bonding Committee, Chapter 99 of the Acts of 2018, An Act Financing the Production and Preservation of Housing for Low and Moderate Income Residents, a $1.8 billion bill addressing the state’s low and moderate income housing programs, including housing for tenants with disabilities.
Reviewed, amended and passed through Senate Bonding Committee a $1 billion Job Creation and Workforce Development bill, passed as Chapter 219 of Acts of 2016.
Reviewed and passed through Senate Bonding Committee legislation providing funding for municipal roads and bridges, passed as Chapter 11 of Acts of 2015, Chapter 78 of Acts of 2016 and Chapter 220 of Acts of 2016.
Post Audit and Oversight
Principal author and drafter of the Report of the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight Concerning a Visit to the Bristol County House of Corrections by a Member of the Massachusetts State Senate on May 2, 2020 and Addendum (under the provisions of Section 63 of Chapter 3 of the General Laws, as most recently amended by Chapter 557 of the Acts of 1986)
General Political Party
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