On Thursday June 25, 2020, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 2769, An Act Putting Patients First, a bill that seeks to maintains access to telehealth services for patients when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends. Massachusetts had not previously allowed widespread adoption of telehealth services, but at the start of the public health emergency in mid-March, Governor Charlie Baker filed an executive order permitting it.
 
The executive order was important for providers like Dana-Farber, where patient telehealth visits grew from zero at the start of the pandemic to more than 30,000 telehealth visits conducted by June. Now given the positive feedback by patients, caregivers and providers who used telehealth during the pandemic, ensuring that patients continue to have access telehealth services when the public health emergency is over is a top legislative priority for us.
 
We are pleased that the final version of Senate Bill 2769, included Amendment #28 that works to ensure that providers are reimbursed at the same rate for telehealth visits as in-person visits. While Amendment #28 which was our top priority was successful, some of our other priority amendments were unfortunately not adopted. The final version of the Senate Bill did however codify an executive order expanding the scope of practice for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs). This is consistent with the Governor’s executive order from March 26, when the Department of Public Health allowed APRNs to prescribe medications independently, an issue that Dana-Farber has long supported.
 
A profound thank you to everyone from across the Institute and the Legislative Action Network (LAN) who responded to our action alert and reached out to their State Senator about our priority amendments. Over forty advocates made phone calls and sent emails to their Senator. As a result, we reached more than half the members of the State Senate with our messages about telehealth.
  
Passage of this Senate bill was the first step in the legislative process.  Next, the House of Representatives will take up its own telehealth proposal in the coming weeks and the process must be completed by the end of the state legislative session on July 31. The LAN is following this closely and working to preserve patient access to telehealth services. We will issue action alerts to reach out to your State Representative as needed.
 
If you have any questions about this bill, telehealth advocacy and other legislative priorities, please contact advocacy@dfci.harvard.edu