Massachusetts Lawmakers Hear Pleas to Preserve Rest Home Medication Model

BOSTON — May 11, 2026 — Massachusetts rest home operators and assisted living advocates urged the Joint Committee on Aging and Independence to move quickly on two sets of bills at a May 11 hearing co-chaired by Senate Chair Patricia D. Jehlen and House Chair Thomas M. Stanley. On Senate Bill 3057 and House Bill 5376, which would create an assisted living trust fund and introduce certified medication aides, AARP's Jen Benson backed the bills as written while attorney Pierce Haley of Serlin Haley warned that uncapped regulatory fines used to fund the trust could create "uncertainty amongst our members." State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Carolyn Fenn reported that just four regional specialists currently serve 18,000 residents across 273 facilities — one ombudsman to roughly 4,500 residents — and said the trust fund is a "much-needed" mechanism to address the gap. On the companion bills, House 5243 and Senate 3056, Ronald Joseph Pawelski of the Massachusetts Association of Residential Care Homes and Alyssa Sherman of LeadingAge Massachusetts argued that a proposed DPH regulatory shift to the Medication Administration Program would cost rest homes more than $160,000 per year in added staffing and could force closures, citing a responsible persons model traceable in industry records to June 1971.