Advocates urge lawmakers to back HB1134 to expand care coordination and coverage for chronic pain

Representatives of the Massachusetts Pain Initiative, clinicians, and patients urged the joint committee to favorably report House Bill 1134, which supporters say would improve care coordination, provider training, data collection, and access to nonopioid treatments for people living with chronic pain on MassHealth.

"Pain patients are frequently not believed, are accused of being malingerers, and are stigmatized," said the policy council chair of the Massachusetts Pain Initiative, who described founding a support group after a traumatic injury and said neuroscience now treats chronic pain as a disease of the nervous system.

Nurse practitioner Jackie Nathan, who manages persistent pain patients, described administrative barriers created by insurers that limit access to recommended therapies and force patients into less effective or riskier treatments. She said Section 1 of the bill would prevent insurers from applying more restrictive access controls to nonopioid medications than to opioids for MassHealth patients, and Section 2 would support comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatment and provider education.

Patient testimony described years of cumulative harm from inadequate care and administrative barriers. Rebecca West, who said she has lived with endometriosis and lupus for more than two decades, described stigma and traumatic experiences in clinical settings. She said chronic pain patients often face discrimination and difficulty accessing coordinated services.

Why it matters: supporters argued HB1134 would reduce long‑term costs by preventing ineffective care cycles, improve outcomes with multidisciplinary approaches, and generate data on prevalence and service utilization through included reporting requirements.

Discussion versus action: testimony presented a supportive case for HB1134 with specifics about proposed sections; there was no recorded committee vote or formal direction in the hearing record.