Addicts seeking treatment services to turn their lives around are set to benefit from a new law that kicks in Thursday and affords insurance coverage for up to 14 consecutive days of medically necessary treatment and stabilization services. According to behavioral health care providers, until now insurers have not been required to cover detox or detox step-down care at all and if they do, they determine the length of stay. The new law allows the treating clinician to determine medical necessity and the appropriate length of stay for up until 14 days. Implementation of the new law comes as the state Senate on Thursday plans to take up legislation focused on prevention and education efforts that senators hope will dim demand among Massachusetts residents for heroin and addictive prescription painkillers associated with a continuing spike in overdose deaths.
The energy debate is also set to surge with a hearing Tuesday on clean power bills, including plans from Gov. Charlie Baker to draw more hydroelectricity into Massachusetts and boost the state’s production of solar power. The House is the big unknown on the energy front since the Senate has already attached its solar power proposal to a climate change adaptation bill and Baker has laid some of his cards on the table with his two clean energy bills and by publicizing his work regionally to bring more natural gas into Massachusetts. House Speaker DeLeo says he wants a comprehensive energy bill but that it’s possible that a solar-only bill may advance.
While senators are gearing up for their third formal session since ending their summer recess, the House has extended its summer break into the fall. The last formal House session was in late July and House Speaker Robert DeLeo has called House members back to Beacon Hill for a formal session on Wednesday, with action possible on a spending bill to close the books on fiscal 2015. Executive and legislative branch leaders have been in talks about this bill and state Comptroller Thomas Shack told the News Service the closeout deadline, for practical purposes, is the end of October when he needs to file the state’s Statutory Basis Financial Report.
On the political front, Massachusetts will get visits from two of the Democrats running for president as both Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders are planning campaign events next week. And everyone has their eyes on Washington again as Congress is up against another government shutdown threat, with Thursday as the deadline for a funding bill.
Click on the audio link above to hear a conversation between State House News Service reporter Matt Murphy and NEPR’s Henry Epp.