Author: Cindy Friedman

Senate Healthcare Bill Overview

Cindy Friedman

On Thursday, the Senate passed the HEALTH Act (S.2202) by a vote of 33-6. The bill focuses on both short and long term goals to lower costs, improve outcomes, and expand access to care.

Key elements of the legislation include:

  • More effective care delivery, including increased access to telemedicine and mobile integrated health services.
  • Strategies for reducing avoidable hospital readmissions and unnecessary emergency department use, including measures to improve access to behavioral health services.
  • Greater provider versatility, including expanded scope of practice for many practitioners including dental therapists, optometrists, podiatrists, and advanced practice nurses.
  • Greater oversight and transparency in drug costs. Opportunity for lower costs through bulk purchasing arrangements, including a multistate drug purchasing consortium.

Read more

Friedman discusses legislative efforts around work shift scheduling Invested Magazine

Cindy Friedman

Senator Cindy Friedman took part in an interview with Invested, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s new community development magazine, to discuss Senate Bill 1000, An Act establishing fair scheduling practices for employees in the Commonwealth.

“The bill addresses the issue of constantly changing work shift schedules,” said Senator Friedman. “The purpose of the bill is to create predictable schedules for workers. This has become an issue particularly in big-box stores and fast-food restaurants because of the availability of software that tracks moment-to-moment, day-to-day, and week-to-week sales and trends and allows an employer to change a shift schedule in a minute. We’ve worked on two different versions of the bill. The first version more broadly addressed all of the issues that come up because of just-in-time and on-call scheduling. The most recent version hones in on on-call scheduling and treats being on call the same as being physically present. The language that we filed this year basically says that if you’re on call, you get paid, because you can’t do anything else during the time you’re on call—you’re working. It’s only fair.”

Read more

Changes to GIC Board Pass Senate Mass Retirees

Cindy Friedman

For the second time in six months, the Massachusetts State Senate has approved a proposal that would grant Mass Retirees direct representation on the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC).

The proposal was filed by our Association as an amendment to S2202, An Act furthering health empowerment and affordability, which aims to gain control over rising healthcare costs. Joining Mass Retirees in backing the amendment was each of the state’s public employee unions and the Mass. AFL-CIO.

Senators Michael Brady and Cindy Friedman took the lead as the main sponsors of Amendment #87. They were joined by nine Senate colleagues as cosponsors: Feeney, Cyr, McGee, Boncore, Timilty, Gobi, Eldridge, O’Connor and Montigny.

Read more

Senate OKs health-care bill that includes Friedman’s causes Your Arlington

Cindy Friedman

The state Senate approved at the stroke of midnight Thursday, Nov. 9, a wide-ranging bill that seeks to control the rising costs of medical care and prescription drugs, including a controversial plan that would fine hospitals if spending rises too fast.

Sen. Cindy Friedman joined the majority in the 33-6 vote. The Arlington Democrat said she is pleased that the bill’s final version included several of her amendments related to improving access to treatment for mental health and substance-use disorders.

“This robust legislation takes necessary steps to contain health-care costs for everyone while continuing to deliver quality care and access to services,” she said in a Nov. 10 news release. “Going forward, we have to continue to work together to level the playing field and look for ways to ensure that someone with an acute behavioral health condition has the same access to health-care coverage as an individual with medical and surgical needs.”

Read more

Sen. Friedman to speak at Temple Shalom Emeth Burlington Union

Cindy Friedman

State Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, will speak at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at Temple Shalom Emeth, 16 Lexington St., Burlington.

She will speak at the meeting of L’Chaim, a new social group established by the temple. “Soup and Salad with Cindy” begins at 12:30 p.m. in the social hall. The new temple group, L’Chaim, was established a few months ago for retirees to get together for social and educational conversation. Members hope the monthly meetings will help build a community-center environment and encourage more participation in temple life.

Temple Shalom Emeth serves local communities including Burlington, Bedford, Billerica, Lexington, Reading, Wilmington and Woburn. Its rabbi, Susan Abramson, is the longest serving female rabbi in Massachusetts.

Read more

Five Takeaways: Lexington officials discuss concerns with Lexington’s State House delegation Lexington Minuteman

Cindy Friedman

The Lexington Board of Selectmen, School Committee and Planning Board met with Lexington’s State House delegation at a joint meeting Monday, Nov. 8. state Sen. Cindy Friedman, state Sen. Michael Barrett and state Rep. Jay Kaufman shared their views on State House priorities. The trio also fielded questions from the Lexington officials on hand, in a wide-ranging discussion that aimed to square up local, state—and at times, national—issues.

At the outset, each of the state legislators updated those on hand about the Beacon Hill happenings that were at the forefront of their minds.

Selectmen, School Committee members and Planning Board members then had the chance to ask questions from a predetermined list of 12 legislative topics of interest (plus three additions provided on-site by School Committee members).

Read more

Criminal justice reform heads to House, with contributions from Sen. Friedman Arlington Advocate

Cindy Friedman

On Oct. 27, the Massachusetts Senate passed an omnibus criminal justice reform bill, an issue which State Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, has been a supporter of since her election campaign this summer.

The bill, which features 240 sections, was introduced to the senate by the Joint Committee on the Judiciary in 2017. The bill highlights areas of the criminal justice system, like diversion programs, decriminalization and criminal penalties and procedures, that Friedman noted had not been looked at comprehensively for some time.

“I feel that on a lot of different levels we need to update our criminal justice system so the focus is on incarcerating less people,” said Friedman.

Read more

Statement on Bail Reform Provisions included in S.2185

Cindy Friedman

I am in strong support of the bail reform provisions included in the Senate’s comprehensive criminal justice bill, S.2185 – An Act relative to criminal justice reform.

Under our current cash-based bail system, we incarcerate too many individuals before their trial – not because they are likely to flee or pose a danger to society, but because they are poor and unable to afford their cash bail. A person’s freedom should never be based on their ability to pay.

The Supreme Judicial Court’s (SJC) recent decision in the Brangan case, which states that a court may not impose excessive cash bail that the court knows a person is unable to pay without a formal written or oral finding, is a significant step in the right direction. However, this decision alone does not address the full range of problems created by the Commonwealth’s reliance on a cash-based bail system.

Read more

Criminal Justice Reform Legislation

Cindy Friedman

Last Thursday, I was proud to join my colleagues in passing comprehensive criminal justice reform legislation after 14 hours of debate on the Senate floor.

I am very pleased that bail reform was included in the final version of the omnibus bill – our office has worked incredibly hard over the past few months to move this provision forward. To read my full statement on bail reform, please click here. In addition, my colleague Senator Brownsberger, the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, provides an informative summary of the bail reform provisions at this link on his website.

With this bill, the Senate took critical action to move Massachusetts toward a fairer system that focuses on lessening unnecessary incarceration and increasing access to diversion programs. We still have a lot more work to do, but we have certainly taken a step in the right direction.

Thank you to everyone who called, emailed, and visited my office to express your advocacy for criminal justice reform over the past several weeks. Your voice truly had a say in the outcome of this legislation. If you have any additional questions or comments, please share your thoughts below, call my office at (617) 722-1432, or email me directly at Cindy.Friedman@masenate.gov.