News

State Health Planning to Improve Access to Care in Massachusetts: Needs and Current Tools
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation
April 30, 2025 A well-functioning health care system should provide affordable and timely access to needed health care for all residents, without regard to their race, ethnicity, income, zip code, age, ...

Wednesday, May 21, 2025, 2:00 p.m.
Presenter: Bob Blancato, National Coordinator of the bipartisan 3000-member Elder Justice Coalition
Registration required for Aging Policy Update
Bob discusses the current state of aging policy at the national level under the new Congress and Administration. This presentation will focus on key shifts in aging policy, ...

Thursday, June 5, 2025, 11:00 a.m.
Presenter: Steven Schwartz, JD, Special Counsel, Center for Public Representation
Registration required for the New Legal Landscape This session will review the Trump Administration's coordinated attack on disability rights, through the issuance of executive orders that eliminate legal claims and disability rights, rescind disability regulations, and ...

New PESP report reveals private equity continues to acquire and bankrupt nursing homes
Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP), April 23, 2025 The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) has released a report, “Private Equity Is Continuing to Acquire – and Bankrupt – Nursing Homes,” which reveals that private equity firms continue to ...

Trump Cuts Threaten Agency Running Meals on Wheels New York Times (free access), April 24, 2025
By Reed Abelson A tiny division responsible for overseeing services for people with disabilities and older Americans is being dismantled as part of an overhaul by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary. Every Monday, ...

Thursday, May 22, 2025, 2:00 p.m. Registration required for SS Study Session Presenter: James Roosevelt,  JD, former  Associate Commissioner, U.S. Social Security Administration Jim advises health care payers, providers, trade associations, and service providers on business matters, legislative and regulatory issues, governance, and personnel matters. He regularly represents medical device ...

Sara Kallock (1987-2024)
Sara’s 38th birthday is April 15. Sara Kallock was an active DignityMA participant for the last months of her life.

Sara was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic cancer of the pancreas in mid-September 2023.

She became involved with DignityMA after months of advocating on behalf of her father who was ...

2024 Double G Citations: Significant Increase in Nursing Home Noncompliance and Penalties Long Term Care Community Coalition Substandard care, abuse, and neglect are persistent and widespread problems in nursing homes, primarily due to inadequate enforcement of minimum safety standards. To help combat this, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ...

Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Determination of Need Projects: Long Term Care Determination of Need (DON) is a regulatory process managed by the Department of Public Health that assesses the necessity and appropriateness of a proposed project or service based on community needs and existing resources. It aims to control costs, ...

Massachusetts Department of Public Health Closure date listed 2025

• Phillips Manor Nursing Home - February 25, 2025

2024

• Highview of Northampton - December 6, 2024
• Marion Manor, South Boston - September 11, 2024
• Bridgewater Nursing & Rehab, Bridgewater - May 24, 2024
• Savoy Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, ...
  
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by Richard Moore, April 1, 2025 The coalition to modernize the state’s Open Meeting Law by requiring hybrid (in-person and virtual) public meeting met with Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) this week to thank her for leadership in extending the current hybrid meeting law and to urge her to support ...

By Alex Green From the moment he became superintendent of the nation’s oldest public school for intellectually and developmentally disabled children in 1887 until his death in 1924, Dr. Walter E. Fernald led a wholesale transformation of our understanding of disabilities in ways that continue to influence our views today ...

HHS’s Transformation to Make America Healthy Again U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, March 27, 2025 The restructuring of HHS is proceeding in accordance with President Trump's Executive Order, "Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.” Over the past four years, during the Biden administration, ...

Private equity firms consolidating homes for disabled *Washington Post, March 18, 2025
By Peter Whoriskey Summary:
Private equity firms are increasingly acquiring companies that care for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, traditionally a nonprofit sector, according to a report by the Private Equity Stakeholders Project. The report warns that this trend ...

Nursing home funds used on designer suits, lingerie, spa service, complaint alleges Boston 25 News, March 6, 2025
By Ted Daniel A former Boston nursing home boss and two of his employees have been accused of embezzling $3 million dollars, according to a newly filed lawsuit in Suffolk County Superior Court ...

We have shared reports on Highview Nursing Home in Northhampton before. While we were pleased to see the closure of Highview of Northampton, one of the lowest-rated nursing facilities in Massachusetts, at the end of 2024, we raised concerns about the closure process. We were particularly concerned that many residents ...

The following letter to Senator Warren (pdf) was sent by Dignity Alliance MA on March 12, 2025. Dear Senator Warren, We want to thank you for your continued efforts in protecting seniors, individuals with disabilities, and the dedicated workforce serving them, whose conditions are directly impacted by the decisions of ...

February 6, 2025 The Healey-Driscoll Administration today released the initial results of Massachusetts’ first comprehensive statewide housing plan to increase housing production, meet the unique needs of communities and lower costs across the state. “A Home for Everyone: A Comprehensive Housing Plan for Massachusetts” was developed in consultation with the ...

February 25, 2025 Legislators and aids, advocates and DignityMA members attended an overview of the Dignity Dozen + 1 bills. The education on the bills was to encourage legislators to sign onto the bills. The latest news and information on the bills is on our Advocacy -> State Legislative Endorsements ...