# Massachusetts S 2543: An Act strengthening health care protections in the Commonwealth Massachusetts S 2543, An Act strengthening health care protections in the Commonwealth, is a 194th General Court (2025-2026) Senate bill sponsored by no sponsor on record; status signed, last action 2025-08-07 (Signed by the Governor, Chapter 16 of the Acts of 2025) (as of 2026-11-01). - Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/MA-S2543-194 - As of: 2026-11-01 - Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts. ## Facts - Bill: Massachusetts S 2543 - State: Massachusetts - Session: 194th General Court (2025-2026) - Title: An Act strengthening health care protections in the Commonwealth - Status: signed - Chamber: Senate - Introduced: 2025-06-26 - Last action: 2025-08-07, Signed by the Governor, Chapter 16 of the Acts of 2025 - Sponsors: no sponsor on record - Cosponsors: 12 - Subjects: House Ways and Means, House Steering, Policy and Scheduling, Bills in the Third Reading - Touches household money: no - Roll calls: 6 (581 yes, 229 no in all) - Economic provisions PRIA read: 14 ## Summary No summary available. ## Bill overview: provisions PRIA read - Emergency care must include needed abortion: benefit, high. Hospitals must screen every emergency patient and give stabilizing treatment whenever the ER is open. Stabilizing care includes abortion when it is needed to treat the emergency. The Attorney General can sue to enforce this rule. Courts can fine a hospital up to $10,000 for each violation. - Health Connector limits sharing of your data: benefit, medium. The Health Connector cannot share data for out‑of‑state or federal investigations into protected care unless federal law requires it. It cannot share identifiable health or personal data for any purpose not allowed by law. Anyone who gets Connector data may not use it to investigate or charge a pat… - Out-of-state bans can’t change custody here: benefit, medium. Massachusetts courts do not change custody, parenting time, or restraining‑order findings based on another state’s ban on gender‑affirming care. The same bar applies to care‑and‑protection cases. Courts may act only if the parent’s conduct would be abuse, neglect, or maltreatment under Massachusett… - Prescription privacy and PDMP limits: benefit, medium. For certain prescriptions, providers or pharmacies may list the practice name on the label instead of the clinician’s name, when allowed by federal law. Pharmacy benefit managers cannot claw back money just because a clinician’s name is not on these labels. Medications used for reproductive or gend… - Tighter privacy at state health data center: benefit, medium. The state health data center limits access to identifiable data to treatment, payment, and health operations. It may not answer out‑of‑state or federal requests about protected care unless federal law requires it. No one who gets center data may use it to investigate or charge a patient. The center… - Licensing protections for abortion and gender care providers: benefit, medium. Boards cannot discipline you for providing or helping with reproductive or gender‑affirming care that is legal in Massachusetts, even if it happened in another state. Boards cannot deny your license for out‑of‑state criminal, civil, disciplinary, or malpractice actions tied to that care when the sa… - Protect provider info and public health data: benefit, medium. Names, home addresses, personal emails, and phone numbers of people who provide, help, or promote reproductive or gender‑affirming care are not public records. The public health department may not collect or share individually identifiable or disaggregated abortion or gender‑affirming surveillance… - Insurers can’t penalize nonprofits for care: benefit, medium. Liability insurers may not raise rates or change risk classes for nonprofit charities just because they offer or support reproductive or gender‑affirming care, or faced abusive litigation. Insurers may still set rates by general specialty risk. - Protect lawyers advising on this care: benefit, medium. Massachusetts does not remove or discipline a lawyer only for advising or representing clients on reproductive or gender‑affirming health care, even if that work is illegal in another state. The lawyer must still follow Massachusetts law and professional rules. - State won’t aid out-of-state probes: benefit, medium. Except when federal law requires it, Massachusetts agencies and police do not help investigations into health care that is legal here. Civil service staff cannot be used to bypass these protections. Courts also may not treat protected care as proof of wrongdoing just because the patient was outside… - Vendors must block cross-border record access: benefit, medium. Companies that store reproductive, IVF, or gender‑affirming medical records must limit access to people the patient authorizes in writing. They must block sending or accessing these records from outside Massachusetts unless the patient gives written consent naming the recipients. Tech providers may… - Stronger privacy for reproductive and gender care: benefit, low. The Department of Public Health creates one standard consent form that all licensed providers must use to share reproductive, IVF, and gender‑affirming health records. Breaking these rules counts as a violation of the state’s consumer‑protection law (chapter 93A). The Attorney General can sue, and… - AG can stop help to outside probes: benefit, low. The Attorney General can go to court to enforce the rule that state and local agencies must not help out‑of‑state or federal investigations into care that is legal in Massachusetts. The AG can seek court orders to make agencies follow this no‑cooperation rule. - Fees to access identifiable health data: cost, low. The state center may charge application or other fees to non‑government groups that request access to identifiable health data. The law does not set the dollar amounts. ## Sponsors and cosponsors - Cosponsor: Andrea Joy Campbell - Cosponsor: Carmine Lawrence Gentile (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Cindy F. Friedman (Democratic), Senate - Cosponsor: David M. Rogers (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Erika Uyterhoeven (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Jacob R. Oliveira (Democratic), Senate - Cosponsor: Jason M. Lewis (Democratic), Senate - Cosponsor: Joanne M. Comerford (Democratic), Senate - Cosponsor: John Francis Moran (Democratic), House - Cosponsor: Julian Cyr (Democratic), Senate - Cosponsor: Pavel M. Payano (Democratic), Senate - Cosponsor: Rebecca L. Rausch (Democratic), Senate ## Roll call votes | Date | Chamber | Motion | Result | Yes | No | Other | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 2025-07-31 | House | House concurred in the Senate amendment | pass | 132 | 24 | | | 2025-07-31 | House | Enacted | pass | 132 | 24 | | | 2025-07-16 | House | Amendment 8 rejected | fail | 30 | 129 | | | 2025-07-16 | House | Passed to be engrossed | pass | 136 | 23 | | | 2025-07-16 | House | Amendment 6 adopted, as changed | pass | 130 | 29 | | | 2025-07-15 | committee | Committee Favorable with Amendment: S.2543 “An Act strengthening health care protections in the Commonwealth” as amended | pass | 21 | 0 | 8 | ## Actions (26) - 2025-08-07: Signed by the Governor, Chapter 16 of the Acts of 2025 - 2025-07-31: Laid before the Governor (Senate) - 2025-07-31: Enacted -see Roll Call #68 (Yeas 37 to Nays 3) (Senate) - 2025-07-31: Enacted - 132 YEAS to 24 NAYS (See YEA and NAY No. 72) (House) - 2025-07-31: House concurred in the Senate amendment - 132 YEAS to 24 NAYS (See YEA and NAY No. 70) (House) - 2025-07-31: Referred to the committee on Bills in the Third Reading (House) - 2025-07-31: Senate concurred in the House amendment with a further amendment, see S2572 (Senate) - 2025-07-31: Rules suspended (Senate) - 2025-07-16: Passed to be engrossed - 136 YEAS to 23 NAYS (See YEA and NAY No. 65) (House) - 2025-07-16: Amended by substitution of a new text, see H4294 (House) - 2025-07-16: Amendment 9 adopted, as changed (House) - 2025-07-16: Amendment 7 adopted, as changed (House) - 2025-07-16: Amendment 6 adopted, as changed - 130 YEAS to 29 NAYS (See YEA and NAY No. 64) (House) - 2025-07-16: Amendment 8 rejected - 30 YEAS to 129 NAYS (See YEA and NAY No. 63) (House) - 2025-07-16: Amendment 4 rejected (House) - 2025-07-16: Read third (House) - 2025-07-16: Rules suspended (House) - 2025-07-16: Ordered to a third reading (House) - 2025-07-16: Read second, amended (as recommended by the committee on House Ways and Means) (House) - 2025-07-16: Rules suspended (House) - 2025-07-16: Committee reported that the matter be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next sitting with the amendment pending (House) - 2025-07-16: Committee recommended ought to pass with an amendment, striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting the text of H4271, and referred to the committee on House Steering, Policy and Scheduling (House) - 2025-07-03: Read; and referred to the committee on House Ways and Means (House) - 2025-07-03: Rules suspended (House) - 2025-06-26: Passed to be engrossed -see Roll Call #57 (Yeas 37 to Nays 3) (Senate) - 2025-06-26: Text of S2538, reprinted as amended (Senate) ## Bill text - Chapter 16 of the Acts of 2025, 2025-08-07: [PDF](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/S2543.pdf) ## Related bills - H 4585: An Act authorizing the town of Auburn to offer expanded senior property tax abatements (signed) - H 5435: An Act authorizing the town of Topsfield to continue to employment of police chief Neal Hovey (passed senate) - H 5515: An Act to increase the value of estates eligible for abatements pursuant to M.G.L. chapter 59, section 5, clauses seventeenth D and forty-first C in the town o… (passed house) - H 3909: An Act authorizing the Provincetown year-round market rate rental housing trust to acquire year-round housing occupancy restrictions (signed) - H 5429: An Act providing injured on duty compensation to Chelmsford firefighter Nicholas Spinale (second reading) - H 5520: An Act exempting George Patrinos from the maximum age requirement age for the position of firefighter in the town of Dudley (signed) ## Sources - [Chapter 16 of the Acts of 2025 (PDF)](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/S2543.pdf) ## Related - [H 4585: An Act authorizing the town of Auburn to offer expanded senior property tax aba…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/MA-H4585-194) - [H 5435: An Act authorizing the town of Topsfield to continue to employment of police ch…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/MA-H5435-194) - [H 5515: An Act to increase the value of estates eligible for abatements pursuant to M.G…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/MA-H5515-194) - [H 3909: An Act authorizing the Provincetown year-round market rate rental housing trust…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/MA-H3909-194) - [H 5429: An Act providing injured on duty compensation to Chelmsford firefighter Nichola…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/MA-H5429-194) - [H 5520: An Act exempting George Patrinos from the maximum age requirement age for the p…](https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/MA-H5520-194) - [Massachusetts bills](https://policyrisk.com/states/massachusetts/bills) - [Massachusetts state hub](https://policyrisk.com/states/massachusetts) - [All state legislation](https://policyrisk.com/state-bills) Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/state-bill/MA-S2543-194 (as of 2026-11-01).