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Advocates urge lawmakers to require insurance reimbursement for community health workers
Summary
Advocates, providers and municipal officials told the Joint Committee on Public Health that H359/S251 would stabilize a workforce they say reduces costs and improves outcomes, and urged making CHW services reimbursable by MassHealth, the Group Insurance Commission and commercial insurers.
Lawmakers heard more than a dozen witnesses on legislation (H359/S251) that would require MassHealth, the Group Insurance Commission and commercial insurers to reimburse community health worker services, supporters said.
The bill’s backers told the Joint Committee on Public Health that formal reimbursement and a workforce-development task force are needed to sustain a sector that currently depends heavily on short-term grants.
Lizette Blonde, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers, told the committee that the bill recognizes “who community health workers are and how their lived experience informs their interventions.” She said CHWs “prevent individuals from missing primary care appointments, help them understand their medications, and even prevent deaths.”
Suzanne Curry, director of policy…
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