MNA Nurses and Healthcare Professionals, Boston University Public Health Professor to Testify September 29 on Legislation to Preserve Essential Health Services

MNA bills would help preserve access to essential healthcare in response to more than 40 closures of hospitals and hospital services since 2009 – despite the DPH deeming them necessary to protect community health

BOSTON, Sept. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The ongoing crisis of hospital corporations closing emergency departments, maternity units, behavioral health programs, and other essential health services will come under scrutiny during a State House hearing on Monday, September 29 at 9 a.m. Nurses, healthcare professionals, advocates, and experts will testify in support of two bills that would strengthen the Commonwealth's ability to protect access to healthcare services and keep hospital services open if the DPH deems them necessary.

Since 2009, more than 40 hospitals or units have closed in Massachusetts. In nearly every case, the Department of Public Health (DPH) determined the services were essential to preserving access and health status in the community, and yet the closures went forward.

Nurses and healthcare professionals have long said this process demonstrates the weakness of the state's current law when it comes to preserving access to necessary care. This became particularly clear during the Steward crisis when eight hospitals were threatened with closure, and the state said it was powerless to keep them open. Two of these hospitals were closed and the state has no process for when this happens again.

"Massachusetts law has failed patients for too long by allowing corporations to close essential healthcare services even though public health officials deem them necessary," said MNA President and practicing ICU nurse Katie Murphy. "Access to essential services has declined across the Commonwealth because our healthcare system follows a corporate, profit-driven model and our state has limited powers to ensure patients can receive necessary care."

"Our healthcare system and laws must reflect the needs of our communities," Murphy said. "We urge lawmakers to ensure that parents and babies, people suffering from mental health or substance use issues, and all our vulnerable residents are able to access the care they need."

Legislative Hearing Details

What: Joint Committee on Health Care Financing hearing on An Act Assessing Health Care Access (H.2469/S.1503), sponsored by Senator Julian Cyr and Representative Michael Kushmerek and Representative Christine Barber and An Act Preserving Access to Hospital Services (H.2534/S. 1574), sponsored by Senator Paul Mark and Representative Margaret Scarsdale
When: Monday, September 29, 9 a.m.
Where: Massachusetts State House, Boston – Hearing Room A2 (see legislature website for remote watching details: https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/5390)
Who: Nurses and healthcare professionals, advocates, and experts testifying on the urgent need to preserve essential services.

Expert Testimony

Alan Sager, Ph.D., Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health, will testify during the hearing on Monday. Dr. Sager has studied hospital closings for more than five decades.

"Today, when a hospital seeks to close essential services – or to close entirely – the process of notice, DPH hearings, and DPH findings is essentially meaningless," Sager says in his written testimony. "I saw this first-hand as a trustee of the former Waltham Hospital, where DPH determined all services were essential. But we still closed. This legislation will take a useful step toward ensuring that Massachusetts residents have real access to needed care."

Strengthening Hospital Closure Law

An Act Assessing Health Care Access would:

• Extend the official notice period before any proposed closure or discontinuation of essential services.
• Require hospitals to notify and allow for comment from affected municipalities.
• Authorize the Attorney General to seek an injunction to maintain essential services during the notice period.
• Prohibit hospitals from expanding or obtaining new licenses for three years if they discontinue essential services without approval.
• Bar closures of beds, units, or facilities during any declared health care state of emergency.

An Act Preserving Access to Hospital Services would:

• Require DPH to establish a process for state receivership of a hospital or free-standing clinic that is pending closure.

Maternity Unit Closures Devastate Communities

According to a White Paper on maternal services in Massachusetts published by MNA's Congress on Nursing Practice, the decision by UMass to close its Leominster maternity service in 2023 follows a trend by other healthcare corporations in the state to close vital community-based programs and services as a means of funneling their patients to larger and more profitable major medical centers.

Maternity services have been a specific target for these closures, creating what the March of Dimes has characterized as "maternity deserts," meaning regions where residents lack appropriate access to needed maternity care, particularly for those serving poorer communities and people of color.

The Special Legislative Commission on Racial Inequalities in Maternal Health in Massachusetts issued a report showing how racial minorities are negatively impacted by inequitable policies and practices, including lack of access to appropriate maternal care. In the last decade, Massachusetts has seen the loss of at least 10 maternity units.

Two years after the Leominster closure, patients in North-Central Massachusetts are struggling to access care, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Beacon that examines the Baystate's "precarious" maternal care situation.

Additional MNA Essential Services Legislation

An Act Assessing Healthcare Access (S. 1610)
Sponsors: Senator Jacob Oliveira and Representative Ted Philips

• Our current healthcare system does not match the healthcare needs of our current population. To address this mismatch, we need to determine what we need and where.
• This bill calls for a study to examine the current state of our healthcare system and access to essential health services.
• The legislation would examine existing capacity, projected need and the effect of closures and service discontinuation over the past thirty years.
• A hearing was held in June on this legislation.

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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 25,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on healthcare issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association