Welcome to this week’s Health Announce!
If you live or work in downtown Boston, you have probably noticed some interesting, whimsical, or just plain weird art installations. WINTERACTIVE, downtown Boston’s outdoor winter art exhibition features pieces at 17 different sites, running from January 15 through March 30, 2025. For those who don't travel to Boston, there are several outdoor art exhibitions across the state:
Topics for this week’s Health Announce:
- Reminder – HCWG meets on Wednesday!
- Health Connector Announces Walk-In Center Closures.
- DTA opens second office in Boston.
- Seeking stories to protect Medicaid!
- Save the Date – March 19, 2025! Choose Your Adventure: MLRI Training: Immigrants & Public Benefits or Immigrants' Day at the State House.
Be well,
Jennifer Hotchkiss Kaplan
Senior Health Law Attorney
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
1. Reminder – HCWG meets on Wednesday!
This Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at 3pm, the Healthcare Work Group (HCWG) meets. Agenda items include Medicaid defense and story collection and MassHealth / Connector updates, as well as an open discussion for advocates to bring up interesting or problem cases they are working on. If you have any additional topics or issues you’d like to put on the agenda, please let me (jkaplan@mlri.org) know.
2. Health Connector Announces Walk-In Center Closures.
On Friday, February 21, 2025, the Massachusetts Health Care Training Forum (MTF) released a notice (attached below) that three customer service walk-in centers will be closing in the coming months. The centers and their last date of operation are:
- Springfield (88 Industrial Ave.) -- March 28
- Worcester (146 Main St.) -- May 23
- Boston (133 Portland St.) -- June 27
The Health Connector expects that Navigator organizations across the state will serve as alternatives to the shuttered walk-in centers. A current list of Navigators and where they are located can be found here.
As reported by MTF, the most common reasons members go to walk-in centers is to make payments, provide verification documents, or get general support. Navigators are trained experts to help members with these activities. Additionally, the Health Connector’s website provides information on payment options and providing documentation.
3. DTA opens second office in Boston.
On February 10, 2025, the Healey Administration announced the opening of a second Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) office in Boston. Located at 1785 Columbus Avenue in Roxbury, the new Jackson Square Transitional Assistance Office is co-located with Department of Children and Families (DCF), MassAbility, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Family Clinic, Horizons for Homeless Children, and YouthBuild and also sits directly across the street from the Boston-Suffolk Family Resource Center and the Dimock Center.
As a reminder, people who are approved for Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) or Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC) automatically receive MassHealth benefits without having to separately apply for MassHealth. Changes to MassHealth profiles go through an individual’s DTA case manager; changes to managed care health plan enrollment or questions about dental or health benefits go through MassHealth.
- DTA -- (877) 382-2363
- MassHealth -- (800) 841-2900, TDD/TTY: 711
4. Seeking stories to protect Medicaid!
Republicans in Congress are moving ahead with plans to cut Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF that will result in millions of people across the country losing access to needed safety-net programs. The risk to Massachusetts is particularly significant: more than a quarter of Massachusetts residents and almost half of all children rely on MassHealth for their health insurance coverage.
The most effective way to convince Congress that this is the wrong course of action is to show them how the program works: individual stories about people whose lives are improved because of access to needed care through MassHealth, or how their lives will be harmed if essential services are cut.
If you have a deidentified client story, or a story that a client is willing to share, please share it with us by Thursday, February 27, 2025. We are collecting stories to share with state and national partners in coalition work to defend against Medicaid cuts. Please send your stories to me at jkaplan@mlri.org.
5. Save the Date – March 19, 2025! Choose Your Adventure: MLRI Training: Immigrants & Public Benefits or Immigrants’ Day at the State House.
On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, MLRI is chairing an all-day training on how immigration status affects eligibility for state and federal public benefits, such as housing programs, emergency shelter, cash assistance, and child nutrition programs. The program, MLRI: Immigrants & Public Benefits, is offered in person at the MCLE Conference Center in Boston, as well as via live webcast. Faculty include experts from MLRI, GBLS, and the MIRA Coalition. Register here.
Also on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) is holding their 29th Annual Immigrants’ Day the State House (IDSH). This two-day event actually begins the day before, on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, with MIRA’s Immigrant Rights Conference to prepare for IDSH the next day.
It is possible to do both! Register for the MLRI training, attend IDSH, and watch the recording of the live webcast of the training when it is made available a week or so later.
