(BOSTON 6/22/2026) — The Massachusetts Senate last week overwhelmingly passed a landmark bill to invest in primary care and make it easier for Massachusetts residents to get a primary care appointment.
The legislation simplifies finding a primary care clinician, reduces the amount of time providers have to spend on administrative paperwork, and aims to reduce health care costs.
Currently, 43% of Massachusetts residents have difficulty accessing primary care. Studies show that 40% of emergency room visits in Massachusetts could have been prevented if treated in a primary care setting.
The legislation – S.3116, An Act relative to primary care for you – requires health care providers and insurers to invest more heavily in primary care services. Additionally, it ensures fairer compensation for community health centers, which serve as the frontline of primary care for many residents, and grows Massachusetts’ primary care workforce by unlocking matching federal funds to train and recruit more primary care doctors.
During Senate debate, Second Worcester District Senator Michael Moore secured an amendment updating the bill’s language to recognize nurse practitioners as primary care providers – meeting the reality in both current Massachusetts law and in doctor’s offices across the Commonwealth. Amendment 62 ensures that the broad changes made by the legislation apply equally to all primary care providers Bay Staters already see.
“People are struggling to access basic healthcare across Massachusetts. This legislation makes real changes to our care and our insurance systems to help ensure that everyone can find a primary care provider who can support their overall wellness and treat issues before they turn into lifelong conditions,” said Senator Michael Moore (D-Millbury). “By requiring greater spending on primary care services, increasing funding to community health centers, and investing in our healthcare workforce, this bill will allow more people to get care than ever before. And thanks to my amendment, these changes will encompass all the different types of primary care providers that people already know and trust, including nurse practitioners. I’m pleased that the Senate is taking these important steps, and I hope that the House will join us to get this to the Governor’s desk.”
This key health policy bill would create a more robust health care system in Massachusetts by requiring providers and insurers to invest a certain level of their annual spending on primary care services.
In recent years, investment has surged in profitable ‘specialty care’ areas while only 6.7% of total health care spending in Massachusetts has been on primary care. The resulting scarcity of available primary care doctors has left many residents searching for crucial basic, preventive care.
Health care entities would now have to meet a new mandated level of primary care investment which would gradually step up to 15%. The requirements would be overseen and enforced by the Health Policy Commission (HPC).
The bill also lifts up one of the main settings where many Massachusetts residents access their primary care – community health centers (CHCs), which have been disadvantaged by receiving lower reimbursements than other providers. This legislation calls for fairness and sets dependable rates for CHCs by requiring commercial insurers to reimburse at least the same rates that MassHealth reimburses for the same services.
The Senate’s proposal also doubles down on recent efforts to grow the size of the primary care workforce in Massachusetts. It would re-establish a Medicaid graduate medical education (GME) program, which the state can use to take advantage of matching federal funds to help cover the costs of fellowships and residency programs. When fully scaled up, the program would fund dozens of positions and help draw more primary care providers to Massachusetts in community-based settings.
This builds on a Senate-led initiative that was signed into law earlier this month to address the shortage of primary care doctors by funding scholarships for UMass Chan Medical School students who pursue family medicine and pledge to practice in underserved communities in Massachusetts after they graduate.
Full details of this legislation are included in a fact sheet in the Senate press room.
Senators proposed 72 amendments to the bill. During the course of the public debate, the Senate adopted a significant amendment to ensure access to timely and effective treatment for people with serious mental illness. The amendment (Amendment 64) eliminates prior authorization for medication to treat serious mental illness, keeping decisions between providers and patients.
People with serious mental illness often have to try multiple combinations of medications in an effort to find the right treatment. Delays due to prior authorization can impede their ability to effectively treat their disease. Feedback on that amendment was solicited last year at a public hearing by the Joint Committee on Financial Services. It was also recommended by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing and was further reviewed by the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.
The Senate passed the bill on a 35-4 roll call vote and sent it to the House of Representatives for further review.
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