In the News

Natural gas safety and infrastructure won’t be part of the suite of climate policy bills the Senate is debating Thursday, but a handful of senators said leadership has pledged to bring a separate gas safety bill to the floor later this session. Senators withdrew their natural gas-related amendments from consideration Thursday afternoon, telling their colleagues and the public that they are satisfied with the commitment from Senate President Karen Spilka and others to address the state’s gas infrastructure in standalone legislation.

“I am really pleased the Senate president, the chair of Ways and Means and the senator I share Lexington with have agreed to do a natural gas bill to address all the issues that come up in these amendments,” Sen. Cindy Friedman said as she withdrew an amendment that would have established gas worker and safety reforms.

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The lawsuit comes amid heightened scrutiny of the care provided to people in the Department of Correction’s custody. It also raises continuing questions about the propriety of holding men who are civilly committed because they pose a danger to themselves or others due to substance use – and who are not incarcerated for committing any crime – in a facility run by the state Department of Correction rather than by public health officials.

Legislation sponsored by Sen. Cindy Friedman of Arlington and Rep. Ruth Balser of Newton would end the practice for men as well. Men were not included in the initial lawsuit, so they were also left out of the legislation that Baker signed. Today, civilly committed men are split between facilities run by the Department of Public Health, the Department of Correction and, in western Massachusetts, the Hampden County sheriff’s office.

Both Friedman and Balser said they were unaware of specific concerns about medical care at MASAC, but their bills attempt to address the larger issue of whether addiction should be treated as a disease or as a crime. Friedman called it “the criminalization of an illness” to confine people for substance-use treatment in a jail setting.

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Massachusetts has been a clear leader when it comes to health care coverage, and as a result, outpaces other states in health care outcomes. But it has taken a village of health care policymakers, economists, practitioners, community leaders, and legislators to create an insurance coverage system that not only works, but that also rises above partisan acrimony.

Another area where the state’s performance leaves a lot to be desired is access to behavioral and mental health and drug use disorder services, with many providers refusing insurance for behavioral health at the current reimbursement rates.

“The first thing we have to do for mental health and substance use disorders is raise the rates that we pay to providers for the service. They are extremely low and it’s just forcing people out of the system,” says state senator Cindy Friedman. The second thing, she says, is integrating behavioral health into primary care. “We have to stop carving out mental health. As long as we treat it as a stepchild or a separate piece of health care, it will be so difficult to get to.”

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BOSTON – Last week, Representative Michelle Ciccolo (D-Lexington) and Representative Rich Haggerty (D-Woburn), along with their colleagues in the House of Representatives, unanimously passed legislation to create a registry of care providers who harmed a person or persons with an intellectual or developmental disability. The bill had previously passed the Senate unanimously with the support of Senator Cindy Friedman (D-Arlington) on Oct. 17, 2020.

“It is unconscionable that we do not have laws on the books to adequately protect disabled persons in Massachusetts who experience harm by their own caretakers,” said Senator Friedman. “The Legislature has shown its commitment to protecting our state’s disabled population by passing this important legislation, which would make it much easier to identify abusive caretakers in our communities. This is a commonsense step that will make an enormous impact on our families, friends and neighbors throughout the Commonwealth.”

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For years, the urgent care industry has grown rapidly, with walk-in clinics popping up across Massachusetts to treat patients with colds, infections, cuts, sprains, and other common ailments. Yet the industry remains largely unregulated. Urgent care has become a common term in health care — but it has no state definition in Massachusetts, making these centers difficult if not impossible to monitor, according to state officials.

“Our goal is to provide high-quality, affordable, and accessible health care to everyone in the Commonwealth,” Senator Cindy F. Friedman, cochair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, said in a statement. “Urgent care centers provide this kind of health care to our residents — so yes, they too should be subject to regulations and oversight.”

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At its annual meeting on Dec. 5, the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys honored several individuals for their advocacy of elder services and their commitment to raising awareness of legal issues affecting seniors, including electing Needham attorney, Pamela B. Greenfield, as chapter president-elect for 2020.

Massachusetts State Sen. Cindy F. Friedman was also named Legislator of the Year for her support and efforts for passage of legislation that protects seniors, particularly those with special needs and disabilities.

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On a national level, the political scene this past year may have looked chaotic no matter which side you support, but moving over to the state level, local leaders like state Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, are reflecting on 2019 accomplishments, and 2020 goals.

Friedman said the peaks of the last year revolve around health care, children’s well being, and fighting hunger, specifically funding allocated to address hunger in Billerica. She said she was pleased to also help provide the Billerica Public School District with $19,348,854 under the 2020 state budget, which is $145,980 more than the 2019 allocation. She added being able to connect with local officials like Town Manager John Curran has been positive. When there was funding available in the budget Friedman said she was able to call Curran, see what the town’s immediate needs were, and offer $66,000 for streetscaping improvements for Billerica roads.

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While several other states have abolished cash bail for criminal defendants, Massachusetts is likely to hold onto the practice, based on new recommendations from the state legislature’s special commission on bail.

State Sen. Cindy Friedman (D-Arlington), the commission co-chairperson, said more work remains to be done, and she is hoping that the legislature will renew the bail commission.

“There’s a lot of interest in looking at the whole bail magistrate [system] and how bail is delivered when it’s not delivered in court. It’s a situation I am very uncomfortable with,” she said.

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WOBURN, MA – Senator Cindy F. Friedman (D-Arlington) recently received the “Outstanding Public Official Award” from Vinfen, an innovative health and human services organization that provides community-based services for people with disabilities. At its 12th Annual Celebration of Family Partnerships this fall, Vinfen honored the dedicated family members, guardians, advocates, self-advocates, and staff who support the individuals it serves.

“All people, including those with behavioral health challenges or disabilities, should be able to lead full and productive lives – free from prejudice and discrimination – and receive support from their communities,” said Senator Friedman, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. “Thank you to Vinfen for recognizing my work, but more importantly, for the work you do each and every day to care for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”

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State lawmakers around the country are following Colorado’s lead in filing legislation that would place a cap on monthly insulin copays for diabetics. Most of the bills that have been filed so far follow the model of the Colorado law that was enacted in May, which caps monthly copays for insulin at $100, regardless of the amount needed by a given patient.

But at least one state is more ambitious. The bill introduced by Massachusetts Sen. Cindy Friedman (D) would cap copays at $25 per month and also would create a mechanism for the state to begin monitoring the cost of other drugs considered essential to the public health.

Friedman told Bloomberg Law that she thinks $100 per month is too high for insulin-dependent diabetics, especially for patients who use more than one drug, each subject to a separate copay. “But there’s certainly no moral universe, or economic universe, in which the price of insulin should be what it is now.”

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