The Honorable Ronald Mariano
Speaker, Massachusetts House of Representatives
State House, Room 356
Boston, MA 02133
Dear Mr. Speaker:
I write to thank you, on behalf of the Massachusetts Medical Society representing over 25,000 physicians, residents, and medical students, for your leadership and swift action establishing protections for physicians and providers of reproductive and genderaffirming
health care services. We are also grateful for the House’s passage of step therapy reform, which is critical to ensuring patients receive timely and high-quality care.
The MMS believes that health care is a basic human right and strives for equity in access to and quality of care – the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs is antithetical to those principles. We are grateful that Massachusetts continues to be a leader
in reproductive health care in establishing new protections for our providers and our patients to ensure Massachusetts remains a bedrock for access to critical reproductive health care services. Additional measures to require insurance coverage for
abortion services without cost-sharing will make meaningful strides toward increasing appropriate access to abortion services.
The MMS is also grateful for the passage of H.4929, An Act relative to step therapy and patient safety. This legislation will protect the physician-patient relationship, ensure socalled fail first protocols are based on clinical guidelines, and will provide
a transparent and expeditious appeals process, ultimately removing barriers and making care more accessible for patients. We look forward to seeing passage of the strongest possible protections for patients against these harmful policies to ensure
patients can access the highest quality care in a timely manner.
We appreciate your continued leadership and look forward to working with you on other important health care and public health issues this session.
Sincerely,
Theodore A. Calianos II, MD, FACS
View a PDF version of this letter here.
