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S 1757

Relates to the unearned income of a child

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Zellnor Myrie and 1 co-sponsor

MA S 1757 ends inmate fees for medical/mental health care, prescriptions, DME, and supplies, ensuring access regardless of account balances.

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Bill Summary · S 1757

Summary — S 1757 (Senate Docket No. 2267): "An Act to remove medical and health service fees for incarcerated people"

Purpose

S 1757 eliminates charges currently assessed to incarcerated people in Massachusetts for medical and mental health care, durable medical equipment, and prescribed medical supplies. The bill intends to ensure that access to health care behind bars is not limited by inmate account balances or assessed fees.

Key provisions

  • Amends subsection (s) of G.L. c.124, §1 to remove the department/commissioner’s authority to "adopt policies and procedures establishing reasonable" fees and replaces that language with an explicit prohibition: the commissioner shall “not charge” for specified services.
  • Expands the covered services from “medical” to “medical and mental health,” and explicitly includes inmate-initiated medical or mental health visits, prescriptions, medications, and prosthetic devices.
  • Strikes prior statutory language that permitted charging a reasonable fee for medical and mental health services and that listed specific exemptions (staff-initiated visits, terminally ill, pregnant, long-hospitalized inmates, juveniles, follow-up for chronic disease).
  • Adds a new subsection (v) prohibiting fees for durable medical equipment (DME) and medical supplies when such items are medically necessary to provide equal access to services, programs, and activities.
    • Provides statutory definitions for “durable medical equipment” (e.g., eyeglasses, dentures, artificial limbs, orthopedic braces, hearing aids) and for “medical supplies” (disposable, outpatient-oriented items prescribed by a licensed provider).
  • Implementation deadlines: The Department of Correction (DOC) must implement the fee prohibitions within one year after the bill’s passage (sections 4 and 6 set the same one-year implementation timeline).

Who is affected

  • Primary: people incarcerated in Massachusetts Department of Correction facilities — they would no longer be charged fees for covered medical/mental health care, prescriptions, prosthetics, DME, or prescribed medical supplies.
  • Secondary: DOC administration and fiscal offices (must adjust policy, billing, and budgets); state government budgets could absorb costs formerly paid from inmate accounts.

Potential impacts

  • Access: Removes a financial barrier to seeking medical and mental health care while incarcerated.
  • Fiscal: Likely increases state-funded DOC health-care expenditures or shifts costs to existing correctional healthcare contracts; the bill does not include offsetting appropriations.
  • Administrative: Requires DOC to change policies and to stop deducting such fees from inmate accounts.

Legislative status and timeline (selected)

  • Filed: Senate Docket No. 2267 — 01/17/2025 (presented by Senator Pavel M. Payano, First Essex).
  • Read/introduced: 05/14/2025 (read twice, referred).
  • Senate actions: Passed the Senate 06/11/2025; delivered to the House/Assembly 06/11/2025.
  • Referred to House Ways and Means: 06/11/2025.
  • Hearing scheduled in Assembly: 06/26/2025 (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM, A-2).
  • Note: earlier committee referrals include Public Safety & Homeland Security and Social Services per the docket.

Sponsors / Notes

  • Presented in the Massachusetts Senate by Pavel M. Payano. (Metadata supplied with additional sponsor names appears inconsistent with the state bill and may refer to other related or companion measures; the primary Massachusetts sponsor in the bill text is Senator Payano.)
  • Related/companion measures are listed in the docket metadata (e.g., A 691, HR 5549 as a companion), and several prior-session bills on similar topics are noted.

If you want, I can:
- Draft a short fiscal-impact summary identifying likely budget line-items affected, or
- Produce a redline comparison of the statutory text before and after amendment.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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