There are currently four pairs of bills related to public access and professional practice of clinical psychology in Massachusetts. (If you are aware of others that should be listed here, please let us know!). You can click on a bill to find out its current status.
H.2528 and S.1487, allowing Massachusetts to enter the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact. These bills were reported favorably out of the Joint Committee on Public Health on 10 October 2025 (just in the nick of time! huge thanks to everyone who helped make that happen!), and we are hoping to explain to the relevant clerks that the fiscal impact is expected to be minimal and thus that the bills should go directly to the floor. However, they might be sent to Health Care Financing or Ways and Means or somewhere else. Regardless, we will need everyone's help to keep our legislators' attention focused -- stay tuned!
H.2536 and S.1488, the "nurses orders" bills -- this is just fixing a typo in the law -- right now, nurses are not allowed to follow medical orders given by a psychologist, which means that in a psychiatric treatment facility or emergency room, everything a psychologist would like to ask a nurse to do needs to first be rubber-stamped by an MD. This seems like it should have been a no-brainer, but this law has repeatedly died in committee for over a decade. These bills were also reported favorably out of the Joint Committee on Public Health on 10 October 2025, and we are awaiting information as to their next steps. There is no conceivable fiscal impact, so theoretically they should go directly to the floor, but who knows?
H.462 and S.255, establishing senior psychologist licensure. When a psychologist who has held a license in some other state for over five years wishes to relocate to Massachusetts, at present, they are required to get their previous state to dig up physical copies of all of the paperwork they filed when they originally sought that license. It's a serious burden on the professionals and doesn't actually protect the public from anything -- the fact that they were licensed in the first place, the specific high and strict standards they were required to meet to get that license, the fact that they maintained that license over time and also maintained a clean disciplinary record, are all matters of public record. Many states do not keep this paperwork accessible, resulting in extraordinarily long delays and even in outright denials of licenses. This bill has also repeatedly died in committee in previous sessions, for no apparent reason. In the current session, it was originally assigned to the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, and was reported favorably in early August 2025 and sent to the Joint Committee on Public Health. A hearing was held on 29 September 2025 (thanks to those who submitted oral or written testimony!). Based on our current understanding of the new committee rules, the reporting deadline is now Wednesday 3 December.
H.1321 and S.685, insurance card transparency. Basically, insurance cards should say what kind of insurance they are, what your copays and deductibles are, etc? This bill has also repeatedly died in committee, again for no apparent reason. It was originally assigned to the Joint Committee on Financial Services, reported favorably, and then assigned to the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on 31 July 2025. The Senate side of the committee voted 5 in favor, 1 abstaining, on 26 August 2025. The House side has until 21 January 2026 to take action.