PUBLIC HEALTH
Introduction
As a former nurse, I am deeply passionate about public health issues. I bring my on-the-ground knowledge of the healthcare system to everything I do. As a legislator, I always keep the health of my constituents front of mind while simultaneously advocating for healthcare providers.
I also believe strongly that everything is related to public health. The food we eat, air we breathe, and places we spend time, all affect our health. Issues like climate change, housing, and transportation are inherently linked to public health, and I believe we need to take a wholistic view of these issues in order to ensure that we are always prioritizing the physical and mental health of the Commonwealth’s residents.
Public Health Legislation
H.2209, An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options
Joint Presenter: Rep. Fluker Oakley
Companion bill filed by Sen. Rausch, S.1457
This legislation creates a process for licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) overseen by a Board of Midwifery under the Department of Public Health and includes licensed midwives as MassHealth providers. Midwifery-care has fewer postpartum complications, infant deaths, preterm births, unnecessary medical interventions, and low-birthweight babies, while simultaneously reducing health care costs. Although not currently licensed in Massachusetts, CPMs are well-trained and increasingly desired. CPMs are licensed in 37 other states, including four of our New England neighbors – Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island.  This legislation was passed unanimously by the Senate in the 191st session. 
H.2215, An Act protecting children from harmful diet pills and muscle-building supplements
Companion bill filed by Sen Rush, S.1465
This legislation prohibits the sale of dietary supplements for weight loss or muscle building to minors under the age of 18. These products can have harmful effects and are associated with eating and body dysmorphic disorders. Last session this bill was reported favorably by the Committee on Public Health and referred to the Committee on Health Care Financing.
H.2210, An Act to protect youth from the health risks of sugary drinks
Joint Presenter: Rep. Santiago
Companion bill filed by Sen. Lewis, S.1396
This bill aims to implement a variety of public health programs that provide a comprehensive approach to reducing childhood obesity and other preventable diseases afflicting our communities. This bill will prohibit the marketing of sugary drinks in schools, require labels on certain sugary drink advertisements, and call for healthier children’s meals and default drinks at chain restaurants.
H.2859, An Act to promote healthy alternatives to sugary drinks
Joint Presenter: Rep. Santiago
Companion bill filed by Sen. Lewis, S.1861
This legislation establishes a tiered per ounce sugary beverage tax that will generate revenue to invest in programs that will better public health outcomes. Revenue from a sugary beverage tiered excise tax would raise an estimated $368 million to allocate towards a Commonwealth Health Promotion Fund to support a number of public health initiatives.
H.2211, An Act to update postural screenings in schools
Companion bill filed by Sen. Cyr, S.1350
This legislation amends an antiquated law that requires annual postural screenings in grades 5 through 9. The mandated frequency of testing would decrease to one screening in either grade 6, 7, 8, or 9. The current screening requirement is not an evidence-based screening and reducing the requirement would allow school nurses to focus on screenings that directly impact learning: hearing, vision, SBIRT, and mental health.
H.2218, An Act relative to newborn screenings for congenital cytomegalovirus
Companion bill filed by Sen. Lovely, S.1405
Under this bill, the state would be mandated to provide universal newborn screenings for congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV). Transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy, about 1 in every 200 babies are born with cCMV and around 1 in 5 of those will have long-term health problems, including hearing loss, mental disabilities, physical disabilities, vision loss, seizures, Cerebral Palsy, and even death. The bill will also require prenatal education through clinical care and obligate hospitals to begin reporting on positive cCMV cases, which aims to reinforce the prevalence of infected babies in Massachusetts.
H.2216, An Act relative to dental hygienists
Companion bill filed by Sen. Moore, S.1429
This legislation allows dental hygienists who have obtained a special permit and training to administer nitrous oxide to patients while under the direct supervision of a dentist. Nitrous oxide is a safe and reliable method to reduce a patient’s fear or anxiety before or during dental procedures. It is cited by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry as one of the safest sedatives used in the field. 
H.2217, An Act relative to limited service clinics
This legislation allows Physician Assistants (PAs) to work at MinuteClinics as they work in all other urgent care settings in our state. Due to an outdated and unnecessarily narrow statute, PAs are unable to serve as health care providers in limited service clinics (primarily CVS MinuteClinics in Massachusetts). PAs have the requisite training and experience to provide care to patients in these clinics across the Commonwealth. Especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that all providers are able to practice at the top of their licenses and provide care is critical to ensuring that patients are able to access adequate services in a timely and efficient manner. 
HD.4325, An Act relative to pharmacists as healthcare providers
Companion bill filed by Sen. Moore, S.1425
Due to their accessibility, the Commonwealth's 7,500 pharmacists became an irreplaceable asset for the delivery of health care during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pharmacists continue to serve as a trusted community healthcare resource while expanding services to meet the needs of the public. This bill modernizes the regulation of pharmacies by permitting pharmacists to test, screen, and treat qualified health conditions (such as influenza, strep, HIV PEP/PrEP therapies, and Covid-19), and in-turn, request reimbursement for those services, in accordance with statewide protocols. Pharmacists will be permitted to practice at the top of their license, resulting in better patient access and health equity outcomes. The goal of the bill is to increase timeliness and access to care for underserved patient populations, reduce stress on hospital emergency departments, create a collaborative relationship between pharmacists and other healthcare providers to alleviate workload, and improve the overall wellbeing of Commonwealth residents.
Mental Health & Substance Use Legislation
H.2861, An Act increasing the excise tax on alcoholic beverages
This legislation doubles the excise tax on beer, alcohol, and wine. The proceeds will be used to create a comprehensive Substance Use Treatment Fund within the Department of Public Health.  Raising the tax by 50 percent on beer, wine and spirits could generate an additional $85.9 million a year. The excise tax on alcohol has not been raised since 1979. 
H.1275, An Act establishing a behavioral health workforce center of excellence
Joint Presenter: Rep. Donaghue
Companion bill filed by Sen. Keenan, S.829
This bill establishes a Behavioral Health Workforce Center of Excellence at a state or community college in the Commonwealth. The needs of the behavioral health workforce are too expansive to be addressed by a time-limited, under-resourced working group or commission. A permanent center of excellence, staffed by experts and embedded in the field of higher education, would provide the opportunity for long-term planning in the behavioral health field.
H.2860, An Act relative to mental health promotion through realistic advertising images
Companion bill filed by Sen. Rausch, S.1924
Our media environment is full of advertisements featuring human models who have been digitally altered to meet an impossible ideal. This has terrible effects on body image and mental health, especially for young people, and can contribute to the development of eating disorders. Some companies are pledging to stop harmful digital editing practices as part of their corporate social responsibility practices. This bill accelerates this voluntary trend and ensures that companies have a reason to follow through on these pledges by offering a modest tax incentive for unaltered advertising.
H.1068, An Act to further define medical necessity determinations
This bill aims to ensure that insurance companies provide equitable coverage for behavioral health treatments, thus advancing efforts to achieve mental health parity in the Commonwealth. Currently, insurance companies and so-called “carve out” firms can deny coverage of services to consumers if they determine that the service is not ‘medically necessary.’  This bill would ensure that insurers defer to the judgement of the treating clinicians, who are familiar with the patient’s condition and need for treatment.  
H.1993, An Act to strengthen emergency restraint for persons suffering dangerous or violent mental illness
Companion bill filed by Sen. Cronin, S.1241
This bill creates a new category of emergency admissions for people who, by reason of mental illness, are violent, homicidal or pose a serious risk of physical harm to another person, and who shall be supervised at their release. The bill also requires hospitals that admit such patients to share medical information with the social workers who supervise such persons during their release and creates a mechanism whereby a social worker or police officer may petition to re-commit a patient who, after release, is relapsing into violent mental illness or is otherwise noncompliant. In recent years in Middlesex County, there have been several tragic instances of persons suffering from acute mental illness harming their family members and themselves. Unattended mental illness has also resulted in some incidents of random violent behavior.  All of these events traumatize the persons directly involved and their families, and devastate entire communities. The Commonwealth will benefit from a process that ensures that people who have suffered acute, violent mental health episodes receive some supervision after they are released from the hospital. 
H.1994, An Act to provide more timely treatment of inpatient mental health care
Companion bill filed by Sen. Friedman, S.1246
This bill requires DMH to consider physician resources when creating regulations for inpatient mental health facilities and to bring those regulations in closer alignment with national standards. The legislation aims to reduce the unnecessarily high standards DMH imposes on community-based hospitals and limit delays in the guardianship process by creating stricter timelines for the process without taking away existing patient safeguards.
H.516, An Act to remodel public school athletics through social-emotional learning
Companion bill filed by Sen. Creem, S.247
The bill establishes guidelines for the implementation of social and emotional learning curricula in public middle and high school athletic programs. The program sets middle and high school athletics on a path to create bias-free, supportive, and safe team cultures. Through the use of these curricula, school athletic programs will be a source of guidance for adolescents to build and sustain positive, healthy, and emotionally mature relationships with peers and others around them.