Hello? Can you hear me?
Today, 249 years ago (i.e., March 10, 1876), the very first successful telephone call was placed between Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson. According to historical accounts, Mr. Bell said, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.”
Let’s play a game: pretend we’re playing charades, and you have to mime a phone call. If you shape your hand into a banana (or a Y) and hold it to your ear, then you are not Gen Z. Or as my kids put it, you’re old like me.
🍌🍌🍌
Topics for this week’s Health Announce:
- Rally for PCA Services – This Wednesday!
- March 19th Immigrants and Benefits Training and Immigrants’ Day at the State House.
- Presenting MLRI's FY26 Legislative Priorities!
- Call for Client stories – Fair hearing appeals dismissed due to paperwork issue.
Be well,
Jennifer Hotchkiss Kaplan
Senior Health Law Attorney
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
1. Rally for PCA Services – This Wednesday!
Join community advocates this Wednesday, March 12, 2025, from 1 pm – 3pm for a Rally for PCA Services at the Bowdoin Street Entrance to the State House in Boston. The Governor’s H1 budget contains a proposal to limit spending in the Personal Care Attendant (PCA) program in the future. This cap on funding will result in people losing access to needed PCA services, as well as threatening pay raises – including cost of living increases – for the PCAs themselves.
2. March 19th Immigrants and Benefits Training and Immigrants’ Day at the State House.
On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, MLRI will chair 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.
How to be two places at once:
- Step 1: Register for the MLRI training
- Step 2: Attend IDSH
- Step 3: Watch the recording of the live webcast of the Immigrants and Benefits training when it is made available a week or so later.
3. Presenting MLRI's FY26 Legislative Priorities!
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) is leading, co-leading, or supporting several coalitions advocating for a diverse array of bills that address poverty, remove barriers to opportunity, and further our goal of a just, fair and equitable Commonwealth for all. Last week, MLRI issued its priorities for the current legislative session, available here. Here are a few bills the MLRI Health Unit is spotlighting:
Cover All Kids:
An Act ensuring equitable health coverage for children (HD.2862, Rep. D. Rogers /S.855, Sen DiDomenico), known as the "Cover All Kids" bill (see factsheet), would remove immigration status as a barrier to full MassHealth coverage for children and young adults. Every child in Massachusetts deserves access to healthcare so they can grow up healthy and thrive. Right now, tens of thousands of otherwise eligible children and young adults in Massachusetts are unable to get the care they need. The Cover All Kids bill would ensure they have access to comprehensive care, including essential services like behavioral health care, prescription medications, and durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, glasses, and hearing aids—regardless of immigration status. Click here to ask your legislator to support this bill!
The Doula Bill:
An Act relative to insurance coverage for doula services (HD.2576, Rep. Sabadosa/ S.789, Sen. Miranda) (see factsheet), would expand access to doula services across the Commonwealth. Building on MassHealth's coverage of doula services (launched last year), this bill would (1) mandate private insurance coverage of doula services, (2) create a doula advisory committee to ensure the success of MassHealth's doula coverage program, and (3) give patients the right to have their doulas present during labor and delivery. Doula care reduces costly and needless medical interventions, improves maternal and infant health, and helps reduce racial inequities in pregnancy and birthing outcomes. Eight other states already require private insurance to cover doula services. Please call or email your legislator (find your legislator and their contact info here) and ask them to co-sponsor this bill!
Bill to Update Resource Limits for Seniors:
An Act To Update Resource Limits for Seniors (S.879, Sen Lewis/HD 3413, Rep. Ultrino) would increase resource limits which have not been updated since 1989 from $2,000 to $10,000 for individuals and from $3,000 to $20,000 for couples to qualify for MassHealth as adults age 65 or older. It also increases the upper income limit for older adults from 100% of the poverty level to the same upper limit that applies to adults aged 21-64, 138% of the poverty level. Finally, it excludes up to $10,000 of the value of life insurance with a cash surrender value from counting as a resource. These updates are sorely needed because despite Medicare’s universal coverage, many low-income older adults face financial barriers that restrict access to health services as well as health outcomes. Please call or email your legislator (find your legislator and their contact info here) and ask them to co-sponsor this bill!
Clean Slate Bill:
An Act requiring Clean Slate automated sealing (HD.1788, Rep. Keefe & Rep. Vargas / S.1114, Sen. Friedman) would streamline the process of sealing eligible criminal and juvenile records by making it automatic, eliminating the need for individuals to file petitions. By ensuring timely and consistent sealing of records, this bill removes unnecessary barriers to employment, housing, and education for thousands of Massachusetts residents. A criminal record should not be a life sentence to poverty. Clean Slate helps create real second chances by allowing people to move forward without the stigma of past convictions. Click here to learn more from the Clean Slate MA Coalition, access the factsheet, and find ways to get involved!
4. Call for Client stories – BOH fair hearing appeals dismissed due to paperwork issue.
Last October, advocates sent a letter to the MassHealth Board of Hearings (BOH) pushing for changes to their policy of dismissing timely-filed requests for fair hearings because the appellant did not include the notice of decision. Despite there being no basis in federal or state regulations to require a copy of the notice of decision, the BOH has kept this policy. It is particularly illogical in the context of telephonic appeals, where every appeal successfully made over the phone violates the paperwork requirement. While the BOH has been flexible in reinstating appeals when a copy of the notice of decision is later provided, we are concerned that many more MassHealth members simply lose their right to a fair hearing because they don’t know they can challenge the dismissal.
MLRI is gathering client stories of recent cases where an appeal – whether through the telephonic process or using the fair hearing form – has been dismissed for failure to include a copy of the notice of decision. Please email your client’s stories to jkaplan@mlri.org. Once we collect a few examples, we will be stepping up our advocacy to get BOH to change this illegitimate policy.
