Bill S.900

Cosponsor of Senator Wolf
This bill would provide 7 paid sick days per year for any illness, injury or health condition that requires staying home, or professional medical care, as well as attending routine medical appointments. This benefit would be available for an employee’s use, or for an employee to care for his/her child, spouse, parent, or parent of spouse.

S. 864

This bill will repeal the change to the UI law and restore the prior practice of the Division of Unemployment Assistance (DUA).   Under prior law, DUA determined if a job had ended and awarded UI only if the individual was available for and actively seeking work and had not refused an offer of suitable work.  This approach reaffirms UI’s purpose to provide income to enable an individual to find suitable, permanent work, while ensuring that only individuals who have no suitable work available to them will collect UI.

Bill S.446

This bill would ensure that citizens of the Commonwealth who are wrongfully denied benefits under a health, disability, or life insurance plan are able to obtain relief in court. Currently, many health, disability, and life insurance plan documents contain clauses that give “discretion“ to a third party plan administrator (typically an insurance company) to administer the benefits program and to decide who is eligible and who is not eligible for benefits.

S.1342

Certain homeowners 65 years of age and older currently have the option to defer paying their property taxes. Under existing law, this is a local option that is capped at the maximum allowance under the senior circuit breaker for a single person who is not head of household, which is $53,000 for the 2012 tax year.   Given the high cost-of-living in Massachusetts, this is unrealistically low and penalizes ‘house rich and cash poor’ seniors living on a fixed income who exceed the income threshold.   This legislation proposes increasing the local option cap to $65,000

H. 2820

Cosponsor of Rep. Kevin Honan
Provides for the public inspection of records made or received by special state police officers at educational institutions.

H. 2678

The bill seeks to broaden the current reporting requirements for private, non-profit, Massachusetts colleges and universities and their related organizations for the purpose of better informing the citizens of the Commonwealth on the total cost of public subsidies and tax exemptions granted to these institutions and how they are used.  These provisions would supplement the current filings made to the Attorney General. 

S. 952

This legislation would allow special police officers employed by the MSPCA and Animal Rescue League of Boston to enforce restrictions on tethering dogs outside as well as other provisions, which prohibit subjecting dogs to cruel conditions.  These protections for dogs were included in the animal control bill passed last session.  Currently, only animal control officers can enforce this provision even though special police officers are already charged with enforcing the cruelty statutes under Chapter 272

S. 865

This legislation recognizes the changing understanding of what constitutes a family in Massachusetts and makes the female specific maternity leave into gender neutral parental leave.  Furthermore, if an employer agrees to a longer period of leave that required under the statute, the employer cannot then later deny an employee any of the protections of the parental leave law without clearly informing the employee prior to the start of the leave and prior to any extension of that leave, that taking longer than 8 weeks will result in a denial of certain protections.

S. 601

There is growing need in the Commonwealth for homes to have basic accessibility features (i.e. 32” wide doorways, 0-step entry, and bathroom on first floor) to ensure that people with mobility limitations will have more opportunities to maximize their ability to visit with family and friends and be as fully integrated as possible into the communities in which they live by fostering more independence.  The commission will conduct a review of the need for visitable homes across the state and evaluate options for increasing the capacity to meet those needs.

S. 581

The bill would apply sections 11A and 11A½ of chapter 30A of the General Laws to meetings of the Trustees of the University of Massachusetts held for the purpose of awarding honorary degrees or tenure.  The trustees may hold an executive session to consider the award of honorary degrees.  Executive sessions may also be held to consider an award of tenure to a member of the faculty if the member consents, provided that certain procedural requirements are met.

S. 522

Because current financial eligibility rules change as you age, this legislation would level the playing field for adults on MassHealth by making the income and asset rules for people age 65 and older no stricter than the income and asset eligibility for disabled individuals under age 65 as of July 1, 2012.  This legislation would have no impact on the rules for people under 65.

S. 521

People with disabilities are routinely transferred to nursing facilities upon discharge from hospitals because they are unable to complete toileting, food preparation, or getting dressed without assistance. This legislation would provide in-home services for people with temporary need for assistance.

S. 447

This legislation will ensure that policy holders of mutual insurance companies, who are the owners of the company, are afforded protections similar to those enjoyed by shareholders of publicly traded companies.  First, it would require salary disclosure for top executives in a clear and readily accessible format.  Second, it would reduce conflicts of interest by ensuring that a majority of the board of directors and the entire executive compensation committee is made up of “independent” directors.  This provision tracks the language of the New York Stock Exchange Listed Companies Manual.  Finally, it establishes a version of “say on pay,” like the provision applying to publicly traded companies because of Dodd-Frank, that allows policy holders to have a non-binding vote of approval on executive compensation at least once every 2 years. 

S. 295

This legislation would create an Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias Acute Care Advisory Committee to craft a strategy to address dementia-capable care in all acute care settings in the Commonwealth, present a strategy to state legislature and all pertinent state agencies and departments as well as participate in implementing said strategy, help ensure acute care settings are dementia-capable, coordinate with federal government bodies to integrate and inform dementia-capable care in acute care settings and provide information and coordination of Alzheimer’s and related dementia care in acute care settings across state agencies.

S.294

The bill establishes an advisory committee on residential care facilities (rest homes). The committee would review the status of RCFs in Massachusetts, including the profile of their residents, the role of RCFs in the long term care system/aging network and related regulatory and reimbursement barriers.  The committee will make recommendations to EOHHS on a quarterly basis.

Bill S.293

Despite efforts to increase options for people to receive long term care supports in settings other than nursing homes, there will always be some need for 24-hour skilled nursing care that cannot be met in many community-based settings including in individuals’ own homes or assisted living.  There is a growing movement to create small house nursing homes (such as the Green House ™) that create truly residential environments where individuals can receive the skilled care they need. This legislation would establish a task force to identify the barriers to small house development in Massachusetts and propose recommendations to encourage the development of small house nursing homes in Massachusetts.