wbjournal.com · Alison Kuznitz | State House News Service · September 4, 2026
A month after formal session, lawmakers begin health worker safety talks
# A month after formal session, lawmakers begin health worker safety talks
The Massachusetts State House PHOTO COURTESY OF STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
By Alison Kuznitz | State House News Service
September 4, 2026
Lawmakers responsible for reconciling bills intended to curb violence against healthcare workers met for the first time Thursday, after leaving protections at hospitals and doctor’s offices unaddressed for over a month since the end of scheduled formal sessions.
Some of those same negotiators tasked with working on other major healthcare legislation this session — primary care reform — have yet to get started, with House leadership tensions swirling around a key player.
The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association estimates that every 38 minutes in a healthcare facility, somebody — particularly a clinician or employee — is physically assaulted, verbally abused or threatened. That statistic had been every 49 minutes in 2021 and every 57 minutes in 2020. The escalating pace of violence and harassment has led healthcare professionals to leave the field, exacerbating workforce shortages and patient access issues.
“As the mother of an RN and having her best friend and roommate also an RN, and my other daughter’s girlfriend an RN, all I hear about is actually what they face in the workplace,” Rep. Hannah Kane, who’s on both healthcare-related conference committees, said Thursday afternoon as talks got underway around violence prevention.
“And so a lot of personal testimony coming to me at home about how critical it is that we do something to really understand the pressures,” the Shrewsbury Republican continued. “And also, it’s critical because we have a workforce shortage and challenge, and so we need to make the environment one in which people want to work.”
Attacks against healthcare workers would be classified as felony offenses under legislation (H 4767) the House unanimously passed last Nov. 19. Perpetrators of assaults that result in serious bodily injury could face up to 10 years in state prison, up to 2.5 years in a jail or house of correction, a fine ranging from $500 to $5,000, or a combination of incarceration and fines.
The Senate bill, which passed on a voice vote July 16, comes with a looser sentence and no financial penalty. Assaults against healthcare workers would be categorized as misdemeanor offenses, resulting in up to 2.5 years in a house of correction. Sen. Joan Lovely, a conferee, has said the approach reflects feedback from behavioral health and disability advocates.
Sen. Cindy Friedman, the Senate’s lead negotiator, said there are “not a lot of differences” between the branches’ approaches “but certainly some.”
“We’re really interested in understanding why each of us took the road we did, but really happy to be here and to do this,” the Arlington Democrat said, noting that both the House and Senate are “trying to get to something that works for both employees and for people who find themselves at the most vulnerable times of their lives.”
Rep. Michael Day, the House’s lead negotiator, reflected on over a decade of advocacy that went into advancing the legislation. The MHA and Massachusetts Nurses Association have previously pushed separate proposals that failed to clear key committees, though the groups and the Massachusetts division of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East collaborated on redrafted language this session.
Day suggested the panel can take care of minor differences “quickly” before diving into “more substantive” disagreements. Friedman and Day agreed negotiators would not participate in separate meetings as they field input from stakeholders.
“I think the general idea would be, we’re not meeting separately with different groups or individuals,” Day said. “We’re encouraging them to send correspondence directly to us. We’ll make sure the entire conference committee has those letters as well.”
The meeting lasted about nine minutes and was kept open to the public. Friedman and Day both said conferees needed time to process the section-by-section differences compiled by legislative aides.
Friedman, co-chair of the Health Care Financing Committee, is also helming negotiations on primary care, in which the House and Senate have different visions for creating a spending target to pump dollars into the chronically underinvested sector. The Senate passed its primary care reform package (S 3141) on a 35-4 vote June 18, followed by the House unanimously passing its version (H 5630) July 30.
Friedman’s Health Care Financing Committee counterpart — Rep. John Lawn — was not assigned to the conference committee, with House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz instead tapped to spearhead negotiations.
“The House gets to pick who they want to pick on their conference committees, and I think Chair Michlewitz is somebody who has a lot of understanding and certainly knows things about this issue,” Friedman told the News Service. “And you know, yes I love John Lawn, and sorry he’s not on it. But I have every expectation that the chair and I will do fine.”
The House envisions establishing an aggregate primary care spending target of 9% in 2030, which would gradually increase to 15% by 2036. The Senate wants a faster timeline, with the target set at 9% for 2028 and reaching 15% by 2030.
The bills were sent to conference committee July 31, and Friedman said she thinks the first meeting will happen “soon.”
“Everybody’s been incredibly busy because of August and the elections and stuff,” she said. “So we’ve connected once and we’ve said after the election that we would set something.”
Friedman, asked about Senate President Pro Tempore William Brownsberger potentially narrowly losing his primary bid to challenger Daniel Lander, said, “It ain’t over, honey. They’re still counting votes in Boston.”
The race, with a reported difference of just three votes, is headed toward a recount.
Primary care reform is also central to Gov. Maura Healey’s healthcare affordability agenda, particularly as she transitions to an election battle against Mike Minogue and as voters grapple with soaring premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
As she rolled out recommendations from her Health Care Affordability Work Group last month, Healey emphasized that Massachusetts should pass legislation that expands access to comprehensive primary care that’s integrated with behavioral health, increases the share of healthcare dollars flowing toward the primary care sector, overhauls the payment structure, and improves provider recruitment and retention efforts.
Alison Kuznitz is a reporter for State House News Service and State Affairs Pro Massachusetts. Reach her at akuznitz@stateaffairs.com.