Provides additional protections for sensitive health information and requires patients to have the right to restrict the disclosures of such patient's health information

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Cordell Cleare and 13 co-sponsors

Expands Section 72Y of Massachusetts General Laws to cover home health and hospice agencies, subjecting them to the same requirements and enforcement as hospitals.

REFERRED TO HEALTH

Summary — S.1633

Status: Committed to Rules (as of 2025-06-13)
Introduced: Filed 01/16/2025; presented in the Senate by John C. Velis
Primary subject (per text): Amendments to Massachusetts General Laws, chapter 111 — staffing / applicability to home health and hospice agencies

Important note on inconsistent source information
- The materials you provided contain conflicting metadata. The top of your input lists a federal-style bill title about protections for sensitive health information (and an unrelated “TEST AI Act of 2025” citation). The inserted bill text, sponsors, and docket numbering refer to a Massachusetts state Senate bill (No. 1633) titled “An Act relative to staffing at home health and hospice agencies.”
- This summary focuses on the actual bill text filed in the Massachusetts Senate (S.1633 / Senate Docket No. 1641). If you intended a different S.1633 (federal or a different jurisdiction), please confirm so I can summarize the correct measure.

What the bill does (per the filed text)
- The bill amends Section 72Y of Chapter 111 of the Massachusetts General Laws by expanding the list of entities to which the section applies.
- Specifically, it inserts the words “home health agencies as defined in chapter fifty-one K of chapter one hundred and eleven, hospice agencies as defined in chapter fifty‑seven D of chapter one hundred and eleven” immediately after the word “hospital” in the first paragraph of Section 72Y.
- In short: home health agencies and hospice agencies are explicitly added to the coverage/applicability of Section 72Y.

Practical effect and who is affected
- Entities affected: licensed home health agencies (per chapter 51K) and hospice agencies (per chapter 57D) operating under Massachusetts law.
- Likely effect: those home health and hospice agencies will become subject to whatever requirements, standards, reporting obligations, or enforcement mechanisms are set forth in Section 72Y — i.e., they will be treated the same as hospitals for the purposes of that statutory provision.
- Because the bill only adds these agencies to the scope of Section 72Y, substantive obligations come from the existing language of Section 72Y; this summary does not alter or add new standards beyond that scope.

Legislative timeline / procedural notes (from provided actions)
- Filed: 01/16/2025 (Senate Docket No. 1641 / Sen. Velis sponsor)
- Referred to Health (state committee) and later to rules; multiple entries indicate committee reports and advancement to third reading in May 2025.
- Status entries show “Committed to Rules” (06/13/2025). A hearing entry dated 06/23/2025 appears in the material but shows committee names inconsistent with Massachusetts Health committee listings (another sign of mixed-source data).

Recommendation
- To evaluate the concrete regulatory or operational impact, review the current text of Section 72Y, Chapter 111 (Mass. Gen. Laws) to see the precise obligations being extended to home health and hospice agencies.
- If you intended a different bill (the federal “sensitive health information” or “TEST AI Act”), please provide the correct text or bill identifier and I will prepare a separate summary.